I was talking with an old friend yesterday who expressed concern about how many of us have lost sight of ourselves due to being stressed and externally focused. In essence we have lost the art of present moment awareness.

When we're too concerned about the world outside of us we become out of touch with our inner guidance, we don't hear our body's intelligence tell us to slow down, drink some water, take a break etc. If this becomes our way of life we become imbalanced and at some point our health begins to suffer.

When you're living with chronic illness you can't multitask, in fact sometimes you can't even complete the simplest task like getting washed and dressed without breaking things down into tiny bite sized chunks.

You might think that getting dressed is one task. Not so for those struggling with illness. The challenge of illness breaks down getting dressed into a series of small triumphs, one sock at a time.

With such a reduced capacity for activity, moment by moment awareness facilitates the understanding of accomplishment. No matter how small the achievement, a sense of inner acknowledgement can be the difference between getting by with grace and sinking into the realms of hopelessness.

Lowering the Bar

All living creatures experience pleasure as a result of completing simple tasks. And that pleasure and sense of completion is what motivates them to do more. If illness means your ability to complete tasks is reduced, it would be an act of self-kindness to lower your expectations accordingly.

Natural Health and Holistic Living expert Jane Alexander certainly thinks so. In this month’s Natural Health Magazine, meditation is number 5 in her list of 10 Ways to De-stress, and she doesn't see why it has to take hours.

Here’s what she has to say: “Even five minutes of meditation can bring your heartbeat down and soothe your stress levels.”