Mind Training: Become an observer of Your Own Mind With Mindfulness Meditation

Gaelle Tuffigo is someone who knows a lot about Mind Training and Mindfulness Meditation, she is passionate about equipping people and teams with the right tools and skills to be happier and more performant, and over the years has worked with thousands of people teaching her Mindfulness Meditation classes in London and Paris.

She remembers the day she first learned mind training and was able to observe and become an observer of her own mind. In her own words below she describes her journey into mindfulness meditation.

So what is mind training and how did you get into it?: Gaelle explains, “I started practising mindfulness meditation which enables you in training your mind 10 years ago. I stumbled across it by chance really, not really having heard of it, and having a fair few preconceptions about it.

At the time, I was a typical young work-hard-play-hard Londoner, who also suffered from insomnia, stress and anxiety.”

“I didn’t want the stress and anxiety, and looking back, I spent a lot of energy trying to push it away, by filling my life with things to do and achieve – my days were packed, from the moment I woke up at 5 am to go running, to the moment I went to sleep around midnight, after a long day of working and socialising.”

“Eventually, my levels of anxiety and stress were preventing me from enjoying my life at all, despite doing all the things that I thought I needed to be happy – exercising, socialising a lot, going on regular city breaks, taking part in charity runs, and so on.

Learning to meditate, I learned to stop. To stop, observe, and create some space around my experience. To stop, and get off this cycle of constant doing that was affecting my wellbeing. To stop, and learn to just be.”

How Mind Training Helped Gaelle Tuffigo Find Her Path

Explain what being ‘an observer of my own mind’ means: Gaelle continues the story of her path to mindfulness meditation, “It was extremely hard at first, as I became aware of how all over the place my mind was, and how restless my body was becoming when I tried to stay still.

I became aware of difficult emotions, such as the fear that was sitting underneath all these things I was trying to achieve, and a lack of kindness to my body which had been sending me signals of pain and tension that I had ignored.”

“I started using mind training to become an ‘observer of my own mind’, its activity and the thought pathways that it follows.”

“I realised then that a lot of the anxiety and stress I was experiencing was self-inflicted. Yes, I had a stressful job, but I didn’t have to keep thinking in the same way, and doing the same things. Stress is part of life, but it doesn’t have to be distressing.”

“Similar to mindfulness therapy, mindfulness meditation can help us release stress and physical tension, by learning to be with and soften into our experience.

But more importantly, it allows us to develop self-knowledge, which in turn gives us more choice about the thoughts we decide to entertain and the actions we decide to perform.”

“Choice is freedom.”

Taking Mindfulness Meditation Classes & Workshops With Gaelle

Gaelle runs a whole range of regular mind training courses, mindfulness meditation classes and workshops in London and Paris for people interested in learning and experiencing the benefits of meditation techniques.

She delivers her approach through:

• Talks: to inspire you to take action.
• One-to-one mindfulness consultations.
• Drop-in mindfulness meditation sessions.
• Workshops: 2h to full day, covering one step of the approach.
• The very popular 6-week Expand mindfulness course. To help you improve your quality of life and experience more emotional positivity. It covers all 3 steps of the model, with meditation and mindfulness practices, input, pair and group discussions, tools to apply in daily life, handout and recordings of meditations to practice at home, for sustained results.

For more information about all the mind training courses, mindfulness workshops, and classes that Gaelle runs in London and Paris, visit her website www.theexpandapproach.com.