Though it may seem exotic, in practice, mindfulness in everyday life can be incredibly simple and offer significant benefits. As Harvard Health Publishing reports, practicing mindfulness regularly can improve memory and concentration, help you fend off distractions, and boost your resilience.
What Is Mindfulness?
According to Psychology Today, “mindfulness is a state of active, open attention to the present.” To be mindful is to live in the present moment without judging your reactions to the sensory input as either good or bad. Instead, you observe any sensations, thoughts, or feelings as they arrive without critique or reflections on the past or future. While it’s inevitably trickier to do than it sounds, mindfulness can certainly be a useful tool. It’s especially helpful for recognizing and working with difficult emotions.
What Does Modern Medicine Say About Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is strongly associated with meditation. Recognizing its benefits, modern medicine has incorporated the practice into numerous therapies, including Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy.
How Can You Explore Mindfulness?
No prescription is necessary to explore the advantages of mindfulness. Practicing mindfulness in everyday life is easy because there are numerous techniques to try. Experiment to find the ones that work best for you.
Meditate
If you’ve never meditated, a popular form for beginners involves focusing on breath. To try it, sit on a chair or the floor in a comfortable position. Then, focus on how breathing feels. Consider the sensation of air moving in your nostrils and out your mouth. Or, ponder the feel of your belly as it rises and falls as you inhale and exhale.
When you feel comfortable with your focus, allow it to expand so that you can observe more. Notice other sounds, feelings, and sensations. Don’t judge your reactions. If you begin to feel overwhelmed, or if your mind begins to race, return your focus to your breathing.
Play the Name Game
Look around. List three things that you see. Then, name two things that you can hear. Finally, name one thing you can smell. Using multiple senses to engage with your environment pushes you to be more aware of what’s going on around you at any given moment.
Play the Sound Game
Listen carefully. Identify eight different sounds. These can come from near or far. They may be from inside or outside your body. Since most people rely largely on their sight, using your ears to interact with the world offers a different perspective.
Discover Mindful Eating
Mindful eating urges you to resist distractions and savor mealtimes. You could simply make it a point to eat slowly and intentionally. Or, you could try eating with your nondominant hand. This pushes you to focus on the process of gathering and consuming your food. Another option is eating with your eyes closed. Can you identify the items on your plate by flavor and texture?
Try Single-Tasking
In today’s world, multi-tasking is celebrated. It’s also the norm. People do it so regularly that they don’t even realize how often they fall into the trap. Instead of overloading your brain, try offering it a single task that is firmly entrenched in the present. As you head out for a walk, use all your senses to experience the world around you in that moment. Don’t think about what you’ll do when you reach your destination. While fixing dinner, consider the colors, textures, and smells of the various ingredients. Don’t worry about what your companions will want to talk about during the meal.
Blow Bubbles
Mindfulness in everyday life can be great fun. However, many people who want to incorporate this practice struggle with the idea of having a thought and letting it go. Blowing bubbles can help you overcome this mental roadblock. When blowing bubbles, you sit and observe sensations, thoughts, and feelings. When thoughts and feelings arrive, you place them in a bubble. Then, you let them float away so that they won’t distract you from your enjoyment of the present moment. Blowing bubbles can be a figurative exercise. Or, you can take it a step further and use a bubble wand.
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Embracing mindfulness in everyday life can reduce stress, improve communication, boost memory, and strengthen resilience. It’s an easy way to recognize the small pleasures that are scattered throughout your day and allow them to lift your mood.
At Springhouse Village, we encourage our residents to explore their interests and offer a wide range of activities and events so that there’s always something interesting happening. We make it easy for our residents to participate in our community. Whether that means encouraging residents to join an exercise class or assisting them in starting a garden club, we strive to help our residents thrive. To learn more about the amenities and services we offer, contact Springhouse Village today by sending us a message online or calling 417-708-3403.