Mat Ward

Mindfulness & Family Mat Ward

Working with the mind has profound benefits for us in our daily lives, yet for most of us time and energy is spent balancing our duties and responsibilities - whether to work, family or the unique challenges and difficulties we face as individuals. So how do we free our time and efforts, and manage these for more powerful and positive outcomes? 'Working With The Mind' is a set of simple steps using mindful tools and techniques, to help adapt the principles of mindfulness to suit us individually, whatever our own lifestyles and routines. Sales from this series support the ongoing development and delivery of mindful community projects, both locally and online. Regardless of our understanding of mind, we know intuitively there is a conscious and a subconscious aspect to our-self. Yet we rarely consider what is in the subconscious mind, and how it is conditioned by our understanding and experiences in life to date - and not just what we're currently aware of. So whilst we may consciously desire a better family life, with fewer conflicts and more love and respect from our family members, there are also many un-seen, or innate desires in the mind. There are often conflicts of interest between our conscious and subconscious states of mind, seemingly beyond our control and outside of our awareness, that hinder us from realising this 'better family life'. When we spend more time in idling thought on what we want to get out of our family life, than what we want to put into it, we do it and ourselves a monstrous disservice. Family life is significant on many levels, and a greater attention on it is empowering in every sense of the word. Being aware of our ideas and expectations of instant fixes, and of how our relationships with each other should be, healthy families and happy homes are far more achievable. This manner of self-awareness also helps us to minimise the harm of family dysfunction, and to support our-self (and others) through inevitable challenge of life together, whatever arises.