Jared Rice / Unsplash
In recent years, the practice of spirituality and mindfulness has become more popular. The act of breath work and meditation has become commonly recommended and shared on social media to help ease the body and mind, and reduce stress.
Dianne Ellis, HeartMind Coach
Dianne Ellis is a Heartmind Coach who has been teaching meditation and life coaching services for over 20 years. She’s noticed a spike in interest more recently, about five years ago. Ellis believes it could be seen as a trend, but labels the pandemic as another aspect.
“With the pandemic hitting the way it is, it’s going to challenge a few people in how they cope with stress,” she says. “A lot of people choose different modalities, and mindfulness is one of them.”
Holly Ballantyne, longtime practitioner of mindfulness believes that the pandemic has brought a new-found interest in mindfulness because of the pause in time.
“I think right now, people are really scared,” she says. “And because they have a lot of time on their hands, they have a lot of space to actually hear themselves think. Out of necessity, people are having to get a hold on what’s going on in their mind and be resilient of it. Not be frightened of it, not have it overwhelm them so that they can move forward and be productive.”
Ballantyne suggests practicing mindfulness and demonstrates that it’s fairly easy to incorporate it in your day-to-day life.
“I would encourage people to develop a regular practice,” Ballantyne suggests. “Whether it be five minutes once a day, every other day, once a week, at least start where you are going to commit to practicing.”
For those looking to learn more, Dianne Ellis is running an online meditation in March that she encourages people to look into. For more information, email mindfulnessmeditationsdianne@gmail.com. Each group class is private and has limited spaces, so early bookings are recommended.
Comments