500 days of mindfulness... Sam's story
Good morning all, this is Sam typing. I hope you are all having a great weekend so far…
Today I wanted to share with you my experiences with mindfulness and why it means so much to me. You may want a cup of tea for it! This week marks my 500th day streak of using the CALM app, with Ash also reaching day 700!
My first introduction to mindful thinking and meditation was back in 2000 when I was studying to be a holistic therapist. I had been suffering with depression and had dropped out of my first college. I decided that a qualification where I could help people in body and mind would be the one for me. I didn't practice on a regular basis having also discovered the “joys” of alcohol but the times I did, I found it helped me get into a slightly better place in my mind. Fast forward to almost 10 years later… Mindfulness had gone out of the window, I was working in a job that didn’t help individual people and alcohol had taken over my life. Having to seek external help for my problems, my alcohol counsellor re-introduced me to mindful techniques and took me through a guided meditation to help me get in touch with some of the good things I had in my life which kick-started a newer positive attitude to life which included a lot of self-reflection.
After giving up alcohol (9 years ago next Monday – full story to be sent then!) I realised just how much I had to be grateful for and actually how much of my life I had been missing out on! I made it my mission to experience life to the full and not settle for what I thought life should look like Over the last 9 years I've changed so much, making many solid friendships; climbing mountains; running marathons; losing 40kg in weight; making the big step to leave my partner at the time, leave my home, my secure job and my friends to go travelling 'solo' for a year (mostly around India) – eventually moving to London almost 3 years ago and starting a brand new career at the age of 31(ish) in which I help people in body and mind yet again!
Being introduced to the CALM app by Ash just over 500 days ago has made me even more mindful in everything I do. Just 10 minutes every morning has changed the way I view situations when they crop up; I have so much more appreciation for the smaller things in life, for the people around me and for myself. Co-creating SMASH with one of my best friends has reinforced to me what a major impact mindful thinking can have on our lives and please believe me when I say that we are so grateful to have you guys supporting us with our vision!
Any time you do one of our classes we are helping you become that little bit more mindful. Whether you really take it on board or not, it is one of the main reasons we began SMASH and from this week we have been adding a 5-10-minute meditation at the end of our lunch time classes to expand upon that.
So, we will see you this Monday for another workout for the body and for the mind.
Sam & Ashley
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Don't forget SMASH Run is now every TUESDAY at 12:15pm
