MINDFULNESS
Mindfulness
Definition
noun
1.
the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something.
2.
a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.
Benefits of practicing Mindfulness.
Improves anxiety and depression
Stress relief
Lowers blood pressure
Reduces chronic pain
Improves sleep
Improves mental health
Improves relationships
Ability to gain self control
Improves overall health
Improves focus
Welcomes peace and clarity in to your life
Allows us to heal and recover much faster
Ways to practice Mindfulness each day.
Wake early and set your intentions for the day ahead.
Each new morning offers a great opportunity to practice your mindfulness.
Instead of getting out of bed and rushing through a morning routine, I recommend to sit for a few minutes.
You could make your favorite morning beverage, find somewhere comfortable with a pen and paper and take some time to write down your goals and intentions for the day.
You might just choose to sit on the couch and concentrate on controlled breathing, or you could try a guided morning meditation.
Allowing yourself this time to just be present before the day begins will help you to start each day off with a positive mindset. :)
Focus on one task at a time.
By dividing your attention up for multiple tasks and trying to do multiple things at once, you are not going to be able to give any of the tasks the attention that they need. In fact, studies have found that multitasking increases the possibility of mistakes and it takes longer than doing the tasks separately.
Take one task at a time and put your focus on the task at hand. When you are done, take a short break and then tackle the next task. This is much less stressful and a comfortable way to get things done. Best of all, it will be likely to improve your performance.
Allow yourself to feel emotions.
Part of being mindful, is being in the present moment, just the way it is. It is natural and normal for us all to feel multiple emotions each day.
We don’t need to force ourselves to feel any particular way.
When emotions such as disappointment, sadness, anger, jealousy, etc. arise it is usually because an unhealed part of us has been triggered.
The best thing to do is to acknowledge the feelings/emotions, remove yourself from the people or place for a moment, close your eyes softly and take some deep breaths - this will help to bring you into a calmer state where you can be in control of your response temporarily rather than reacting in a way you might later regret.
Create something.
If you have a creative hobby, this can also be a good opportunity to practice mindfulness. Spend some time doing what you enjoy and just be in the moment of creation. Whether you like to draw, paint, build, or take photographs, your creative side is mindful by its very nature. As an additional point, the practice of mindfulness can encourage creativity. When you are taking a walk or meditating, you may find that new and creative ideas come to you more easily.
Spend some time outside.
Spending a little time outdoors each day is an easy, enjoyable way to achieve mindfulness. It can be as simple as taking a walk around your neighborhood. Or make the most of our beautiful beaches, parks, trails, picnic spots, they make the perfect environment for getting in touch with nature and for connecting with the present moment. Take your shoes off, feel the earth beneath you, touch the water, be aware of how the weather feels, what you hear, what you smell, observe the little insects or the birds in the sky.
Meditate.
In a sense, meditation is the art of mindfulness. In meditating, you are taking the time to connect with your mind, body and soul.
I recommend starting with a guided meditation, make sure you have gone to the toilet, have a glass of water handy, chuck your comfy clothes on and make sure you won’t be distracted for the duration of the meditation (its also a good idea to allow yourself 10 minutes or so afterwards to just be).
It is very normal to have thoughts pop up, try not to fight them, rather imagine you are looking at a screen and watch the thoughts going across the screen from the left and disappearing off to the right (do this as many times as you need to) always bring your attention back to your breath and listen to the words guiding you.
I will put some links to some of my favorite guided meditations in the next paragraph :)
Meditation links
LET GO of Anxiety, Fear & Worries Guided Meditation - 25 minutes
Morning Meditation - 10 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1JOT30bP5g
Guided Meditation for sleep - 1 hour