To Infinity and Beyond!
Discover the limitlessness of infinity and ease anxiety with 3 mindful practices
In case you’re not familiar with it, To infinity and beyond! is a famous quote by Buzz Lightyear in the movie, Toy Story (Disney, 1995). Buzz is described as an “eternal optimist” and that quote is filled with positive energy.
I’m fascinated by the concept of infinity. For me, it inspires hope and encouragement that we can keep reaching for our dreams throughout our entire lives.
“Your limits are somewhere up there, waiting for you to reach beyond infinity.”
Arnold Henry
There are many ways to describe the concept of infinity and it’s symbol looks like a sideways number 8:
According to https://www.britannica.com/science/infinity-mathematics, in 1655, mathematician John Wallis developed this symbol for infinity that represents time as neverending. In addition to bringing us good luck and protection, it reminds us of harmony, peace, and oneness, and also represents:
Balance
Endless opportunities
Eternity
Regeneration (starting over again and again)
Limitlessness
Everlasting love
For Buddhists, the number 8 represents Karma and the Noble Eightfold Path that guides all our ethics and morals.
The infinity symbol, with all its beautiful meanings, lends itself perfectly to mindful practices that help calm and soothe stress and anxiety.
Here are my three favourite mindful infinity practices that you can try the next time you’d like to add a little calm to your day.
3 Mindful Infinity Practices (meditation, movement, mindful writing)
1. Listen to this Breathe into Infinity meditation and visualization anytime you want to ease anxiety and create calm (Click on this link to listen to the meditation):
2. Try this mindful movement practice to help distract your mind from its anxious thinking by engaging both the right and left hemispheres of your brain. We do most of our thinking in the left hemisphere, and by engaging the right side of the brain, you can start to disrupt some of those patterns.
Pick up a pen or pencil (or any other small object) and start moving it back and forth across your body from your right hand to your left hand. Make the shape of infinity in the air as you go hand to hand. Connect your breath to the movement. It can be big or small, but by going back and forth you’re helping your brain disrupt its pattern of thinking.
3. Try this thoughts, feelings and drawing exercise (I call it Noodling, Moodling and Doodling):
Pick up your pen or pencil and start moving it across the paper, connecting with your breath as you draw. You may want to start with the infinity symbol above and notice what evolves.
Suggestions:
Draw randomly on your paper, in any direction. Write down the words “breathe in, breathe out” as you draw and connect your breath.
You may notice that you want to add other words. There are no rules!
You are also invited to notice your feelings as you’re drawing and write them down as well.
Try drawing with your non-dominant hand, just for fun!
Add colour, if you wish, with pencil crayons, markers or paints.
Journal Prompts:
What did you notice with these breath, movement, and drawing practices, if anything?
How does the word infinity feel in your body?
How does it feel to connect your breath, thoughts and feelings through breath, movement, and drawing practices?
Doing mindful practices like these whenever you feel anxious will help you create magical shifts in your mindset.
The possibilities are infinite.
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I’d love to hear from you so please send any comments or questions to me at sharon@sharonashtoncoaching.com. Feel free to share this email with anyone else who may be interested.
Please check out The Journey Within podcast at:
What is stopping you from living your best life? Get out your journal and a pen and take the new quiz on my website to find out:
Are you interested in learning more about life change & mindset coaching from a mind/body perspective? Please email me at sharon@sharonashtonmindfulyoga.com for more information or to schedule a free introductory consultation to see if coaching is right for you. You can also visit my website coaching page.
"I felt at complete ease with Sharon from our first conversation. She has a wonderful, gentle but firm way that made me focus on my thoughts / feelings so I could remove / change to move forward with a completely different feeling to what felt like obstacles. It was great having regular coaching that gently kept me accountable to actioning and moving towards my goals. Sharon has vast experience in so many areas, I felt that makes her an amazing coach.”
— Michelle Carney, East Galway, Ireland
You can access your free Find Your Inner Coach Guide including a guided visualization and journal prompts here:
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