Do you ever feel like you’re going about your day, rushing from one thing to the next? Forgetting where you put your keys, left your phone or if you are like me – where you parked your car?
These things are more likely to happen if you are not fully in the present moment and your mind is half concentrating on something else. When we live busy and packed schedules it can be easy to stop living in the present moment and easily succumb to emotional stressors as we are quickly overwhelmed. When we practise mindfulness, we’re paying attention to the present moment on purpose. We’re not ruminating or dwelling on what has gone wrong in the past and we’re not worrying about what could go wrong in the future. When we are able to live in the present moment, we increase our capacity to manage and experience emotions, take each moment as it comes and improve our general wellbeing.
May is mindfulness month and a perfect reminder to slow down and invite mindfulness practises into our daily life.
Explore these four daily practises to welcome mindfulness into your life:
Mindfully wake up and set your intention for the day
When you wake up and rise mindfully, you have the ability to set your intention for the day. It’s a nice way to ease into the day, especially if you don’t want to get out of bed but you have to!
- Start by tuning into your body as soon as you open your eyes in the morning. Allow yourself to enjoy the transition between dream land and wakefulness.
- Pay attention to your breath and feel your body rise and fall as you inhale and exhale.
- Expand your awareness to any other sensations you may be feeling in your body. Are your muscles relaxed, slow, heavy?
- When you are ready, gently roll over to one side and rise slowly.
- Set an intention for the day. For example, ‘Today I will have patience and compassion for myself’, ‘stay grounded and focused’ or something else important to you.
Take a walk as if you were a tourist in your own street
Mindfulness doesn’t need to be hard. If you’re not the type to sit down and practice guided mindfulness meditation, don’t sweat it. There are plenty of other ways to practice mindfulness.
When we practise mindfulness, all we’re doing is paying attention to the present moment on purpose. It’s as simple as that. If you enjoy walking you can do this right outside your own letterbox.
Imagine you’re a visitor or a tourist in your street. Pay attention to the different houses, shapes and sizes. What would a tourist notice for the first time in your street, what features would stand out and be noticeable? Try taking a mindful walk around the block.
Mindful eating
Are you a culprit of eating on the go? If we don’t give ourselves enough time to actually sit down and honour our meal time we are not helping our body. When we’re rushing, running, and eating we don’t have the ability to digest food properly which has a knock on effect to our health.
Ensuring you’re eating mindfully not only aids your digestion but it can also be a ritual throughout your day to live in the present moment. It can also be very easy to distract yourself with television or your phone while eating and stop listening to your body. Eating mindfully can help us notice that we are truly hungry rather than subconsciously eating our emotions.
– Breathe and make sure you are relaxed before eating.
– Listen to your body and notice your physical sensations of hunger.
– Savour your food and notice all the sensations that occur when you eat, the sights, smells, tastes and textures.
– Practise mindful eating in harmony with your body.
Mindful driving
Have you ever been driving somewhere familiar and surprised yourself by already driving a portion of the trip without realising it? That’s because we’re on autopilot so often. In 2010, Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert of Harvard university, conducted a study and found that the average person spends about 47% of their day on autopilot. That’s a lot of time to have your mind leave the building while you go about your day!
Next time you’re driving home, pay attention on purpose to all of your senses on your journey. Notice the different coloured cars, how the lines on the road are marked, the sound of engines or window wipers, any tension in your body as you sit in traffic, any emotions that may arise as a result of sitting in traffic. By making your drive home after work a mindful one, it can also help wash away the stress of the day and transition you back into home life.
There are so many benefits to practising mindfulness. It can promote healing, increase energy, and enhance awareness. Mindfulness helps us gain insight into our own thoughts, feelings and behaviours and takes us off automatic pilot, providing us with conscious wisdom to respond to life on our terms. The more you are able to practise mindfulness the easier it gets.
If you find your mind wandering off, that’s ok; just bring it back and gently refocus. Whether you’re setting time aside to mindfully meditate or practising mindfulness in a task or moment throughout your day, there are many different ways you can welcome more mindfulness into your life. You may feel you don’t have time for mindfulness, but mindfulness always has time for you.