Playing squash with friends or simply for regular exercise can bring an unparalleled sense of wellbeing and achievement, unmatched by other forms of fitness. A full body workout produces feel-good endorphins which leave players invigorated for hours afterwards.
Mindfulness can help improve your squash practice by keeping you focused and relaxed during matches, building mental toughness and resilience at the same time.
Self-awareness
Mindfulness practice can help you become more self-aware by teaching you to recognize emotions and thoughts without judgment, helping you better understand yourself as well as making more informed decisions based on self-knowledge. Over time, practicing mindfulness may lead to improved mental health, healthier relationships, and increased happiness in life.
Self-awareness refers to your ability to understand your behaviors, emotions, and values; this is achieved by observing yourself in various situations and considering both internal and external factors that impact on you. Self-awareness also allows us to identify goals and obstacles. Furthermore, it can assist us in understanding strengths, weaknesses and environment fit more fully.
Self-aware people can recognize negative patterns in their lives and implement changes to improve them. For instance, those unaware of their spending habits might not realize they’ve exceeded budget. Once aware, however, she could begin tracking expenses and setting goals to be more responsible.
Self-awareness can help identify negative patterns while also goal setting, developing relationships, overcoming challenges and reaching your goals. But remember: self-awareness needs to be done in conjunction with compassion and self-care – otherwise it can feel like shining a spotlight on dark corners of yourself that you’d rather keep hidden!
Self-awareness can be achieved through meditation, self-reflection and psychotherapy. A cognitive behavioral therapist (CBT) may work with you to address negative thought patterns and behavior while in meditation you can focus on breathing while noting how your body reacts to certain thoughts.
Self-awareness is a fundamental aspect of meaning-making, the psychological process aimed at discovering purpose and fulfillment in life. Meaning-making involves exploring your values, beliefs, strengths, weaknesses and creating an inner sense of safety and connection – essential components of human experience that can benefit emotional well-being in many ways – for instance by building healthy relationships or finding fulfillment through work.
Cultivating self-compassion
Self-compassion involves approaching yourself in an understanding and supportive manner during times of distress or suffering. Instead of punishing yourself when things go wrong, practicing self-compassion helps you treat yourself more kindly – just as you would treat a close friend – which can speed up recovery from setbacks and navigate tougher situations more smoothly.
Self compassion can be especially useful in training our inner critics to accept our mistakes and failures without attacking us. Through practice of self-compassion, it becomes possible to recognize these critical thoughts for what they are: often just parts of yourself that need comforting or healing. Self compassion also plays an essential role in alleviating emotional distress that could otherwise lead to harmful behaviors or prolonged ruminating – possibly contributing to anxiety and depression in some individuals.
Studies have shown that self-compassion leads to more flexible and supportive responses to stress, as well as higher senses of eudaimonic happiness (eudaimonic bliss) with decreased worry levels and negative emotions. According to Rudaz et al. research, it also increases emotion regulation ability while encouraging adaptive behaviors.
Some individuals may find it challenging to practice self-compassion, such as adult children of insecure attachment, women with eating disorders and survivors of trauma; however, several mental health techniques can be employed to increase feelings of self-compassion such as mindfulness meditation, soothing activities or self-care rituals.
These practices can be combined with tools from the Wellness Champions toolkit, such as check-in questions and positive psychology tools, for an enhanced self-compassion experience. For instance, try practicing mindfulness meditation while engaging in self-compassion activities like watching funny videos or taking a relaxing bath – or use our Self-Compassion Break audio guide guide for on-the-go practice!
Denman suggests one strategy for cultivating more self-compassion: asking yourself “What am I in need of right now?” She suggests self-care strategies like listening to music, drinking a cup of tea or going for a short walk; building up your “laughter library” by watching videos; writing in your journal or having an intimate and comforting chat with a close friend.
Cultivating positive emotions
Jack-o’-lanterns you use every year at Halloween contain stringy flesh and seeds from a squash plant’s fruit, the squash. Like apples, bananas and oranges, squash counts as fruits because their seeds are contained within or on its flesh while vegetables have separate seeds that grow separately from what’s eaten. Scientists are learning more and more about the power of positive emotions to foster emotional wellbeing; also that people with more optimistic views on life tend to live longer, experience fewer illnesses and lower blood pressure; as well as having reduced risks for heart disease risk factors.
Cultivating positive emotions is vital, yet there can be dangerous ways of cultivating them. Excessive drinking may produce some positive emotions; however, its side effects include hangovers, dehydration, liver disease and poor skin. By contrast, NIH-funded researchers are investigating ways of cultivating these positive emotions safely.
According to recent research, practicing gratitude and appreciation can be a powerful way of feeling happier over time and increasing positive emotions over time. Furthermore, this helps increase resilience when negative emotions emerge, and research indicates that such positive emotions help you cope better with challenges by broadening your patterns of thought and acting.
Negative emotions serve a useful function, such as encouraging vigilance or motivating you to seek justice. But if these negative emotions linger beyond their initial usefulness, they can become irritating, leading to increased heart rate and blood pressure increases and leading to unnecessary irritation or even heart attack symptoms. Laboratory experiments have demonstrated that stimulating positive emotions helps the cardiovascular recovery from negative ones faster and mitigates their unwanted side effects faster.
So it is vitally important to cultivate positive emotions regularly through activities like meditation, mindfulness and gratitude. Mindfulness practices such as walking or gardening or performing a body scan (focusing on how different parts of your body feel without labeling them good or bad ) can be powerful tools in stimulating positive emotions and increasing psychological wellbeing.
Cultivating resilience
Life’s unpredictable journey can be challenging to manage. From everyday challenges to more severe events, these changes may stir strong emotions and uncertainty. Resilience is a vital skill in helping individuals adapt to change, thrive in difficult circumstances and build meaningful relationships. Furthermore, resilience helps protect individuals against stress-related illnesses while improving overall well-being.
Cultivating resilience requires adopting strategies that foster emotional strength and adaptability, such as self-awareness, mindfulness, regulating one’s feelings and prioritizing wellness and creating healthy habits – such as eating nutritious food regularly, exercising regularly or connecting with compassionate individuals; they may even involve participating in spiritual or cultural practices which hold meaning for them – in order to develop resilience over time and effort. Building resilience takes both time and dedication!
To build resilience, it is vital that individuals connect with supportive communities. Such communities can offer you the resources and emotional support necessary for dealing with stressful situations while providing hope in times of hardship. Researchers have revealed that resilience is directly affected by one’s environment – this includes family, friends, social networks as well as culture and traditions in their local community.
An important factor of resilience is finding meaning and purpose in life experiences, whether through challenging experiences or learning from them. Finding ways to contribute positively to society such as volunteering or being part of social justice movements are also integral parts of resilience.
When it comes to facing challenges head on, having an understanding community and positive outlook are two essential ingredients of resilience. Understanding and accepting that difficult feelings are natural will allow you to avoid judging yourself for experiencing them; furthermore, focussing on positive things in your life allows you to better prepare yourself for unexpected setbacks and find strength during difficult situations.