Contemplation: Revisit Your Favourite Holiday Destination!

In The Secrets of Mindful Beauty we share many mindfulness and meditation techniques that can enhance our lives. One of these is contemplation. Not only will it help you appreciate where and who you are right now, it can also help you make the most of your holidays, by appreciating where you’ve travelled, time and time again.

Contemplation is a practice similar to meditation, although it has some differences. Meditation requires some focus; we concentrate on our breath, or on a mantra or prayer, or perhaps a particular picture or symbol. In contrast, contemplation lets our thoughts roam free. It means to ‘survey with the eyes or the mind’. The word contemplate comes from the Latin contemplari which was linked to the word templum or temple, in which an augury or oracle resided. An augury was someone who could divine signs and symbols. Contemplation accesses the temple of your mind through the temple of your body.

Contemplation is a useful complement to mindfulness. It may appear to be doing nothing, when you’re actually doing a lot. It can seem no more than day-dreaming. Rather, it is a way of widening your eyes to what you see. In Sanskrit, this is known as dharma – opening ourselves to the world and what we experience.



Contemplari: Reflective Visualization Exercise

Try this visualization technique. This is a magical, creative process you can carry out as often as you wish.

Close your eyes. You may be standing, seated, or lie down for this exercise. Allow five to ten minutes. Bring into your mind the most beautiful place you have ever seen. It might be somewhere you’ve visited; it might be somewhere you saw in a movie or on TV that you want to visit. It might be mountains, woods, the beach, a starry sky, or a city skyline. It might be far away, it might be near home. Go there. In your mind, make a visit.

Contemplate this interior place. Allow yourself to fully experience it. Look around, breathe the air. Engage your senses. See what is around or in front of you with both your eyes and your mind by cultivating a state of calm, of relaxed receptivity. Glance in front of you, sideways, look over your shoulder. Gaze around, breathe the air. Stop and stare. Engage your senses – take note of what you see, scent, hear, touch and smell. Pay attention to every detail, but without strain. Stand back and take in the whole. Relax. Contemplate your surroundings for as long as you like: let its beauty become part of you.

Can you still visualize your surroundings? Through contemplation, re-view what is still around you although you can’t see it with your physical eyes. Retain your state of calm, of relaxed receptivity. Allow yourself to fully experience your surroundings again. Look around, breathe the air. Engage your senses – recall what you can see, scent, hear, touch and smell. Linger for as long as you like: let its beauty become part of you.

Open your eyes. Go to a mirror. Allow the beauty of your contemplations to remain expressed in your eyes, mind, face and body.  

Next time you visit somewhere or see something beautiful, contemplate it. Create a picture in your mind, for further contemplation. There’s no limit to the beauty you can contemplate outside and inside you. It is always accessible, always there. You are part of the world’s beauty. It is part of you.



Use a favourite holiday photo to prompt your contemplation. One of my favourites is Cassis, in the South of France. Being able to visit it again is beautiful!

 

About the Author 

Dr Elizabeth Reid Boyd has degrees in psychology and gender studies. She has taught interpersonal, communication, and personal development skills including meditation, self-awareness, self-care and mindfulness at the university level for almost two decades. She writes fiction as Eliza Redgold.

 

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The Secrets of Mindful Beauty: Revolutionary Techniques in Anti-Aging and Self-Care

 

If you think the answer to anti-aging and looking good comes from a jar, a salon, or a surgical procedure: think again. The best beauty treatment is in your own mind.

Did you know

Depression can give you wrinkles

Insomnia can cause sagging skin

Anxiety can increase reddening and skin rashes

Stress can result in acne and hair loss

and much more?

Discover the secrets of mindful beauty. Lose your permanent frown. Smooth your worried brow without Botox. Turn your sag lines into smile lines. These age-defying techniques have been specially created for a happier, more beautiful you.

Mindful beauty is a way of applying the practices of mindfulness to our physical health and well-being. Many of our routines around beauty lend themselves to mindfulness, and this will not only enhance the experience, but also have ongoing positive beautifying effects by reducing the stress and anxiety that can affect how we look and feel.

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