A How-To Guide to Mindfulness

Anxiety and stress can have a huge toll on your mental health which can impact other aspects of your life such as eating, sleeping, and your social life. With this in mind, learning how to cope and turning the things you are worried about into something you can tackle will boost your overall peace of mind. 

A great way to do this is to learn how to practice mindfulness, which is defined as focusing on your awareness in the present moment and acknowledging your thoughts, sensations, and feelings. It’s a self-therapeutic technique that can improve your overall well-being.

In this article, we will be going over tips, tricks, and how-tos to help you reach a state of mindfulness. If you would like to learn more, we encourage you to stick around. 

What is Mindfulness? 

Mindfulness is a state of mind. It’s about being present and aware of where we are without being overly reactive to your worries. You might initially think that mindfulness is about meditation, but that is simply a part of it. Mindfulness follows you around throughout the day to allow yourself to relax and take in everything one step at a time. 

What are 5 Ways That You Can Practice Mindfulness? 

Mindfulness takes a bit of practice, but being persistent and trying to work on it daily will eventually lead to a calmer state of mind where your worries seem to vanish. Keep in mind that if you do need to talk to someone, seeking professional help on top of practicing mindfulness is recommended. But if you just feel you need to reach a certain state of mind, you can use these 5 essential tips on how to practice being mindful. 

Put Down Your Electronic Device 

We are conditioned to constantly check our phone, emails, and messages. Many of us scroll through social media just to stave off boredom. But taking a break is healthy for the mind and body.

Once you have turned off all your devices, sit or lie down and close your eyes. What are you thinking about? Do you have many different thoughts running through your head? If so, think of something calming instead, feel your breath, realize that you were given life and that whatever problems you may have are temporary. This is your chance to get away from it all and be in your own mind. 

Do One Thing at a Time

Doing the dishes, tidying up the house, working on a project, texting back a friend — all of these things can jumble your mind with stress. But instead of worrying about getting everything done at once, do one thing at a time and forget about everything else while doing that one task. You’ll find that looking at things from this perspective will make it easier to cope with everyday life.

Find Meaningful Moments in Mundane Tasks

Do you put off certain tasks because they are simply boring or too much work? Do you have a pile of dishes stacking up and “you’ll get to it tomorrow?” Finding positive meaning in the tasks we don’t like doing is a part of being mindful. When washing those dishes, find something meaningful about it.

Perhaps you can find a satisfying rhythm, think about how happy you will be to see an empty sink and dishes that are ready to be used or look at it as relaxing rather than boring. 

Even with seemingly stressful tasks, you can turn it into a game or a challenge and realize you are a capable person and that you can do this — you’ve done it before and you can do it again. Or, if it is a new task, think about the learning experience it can bring for self improvement. There are positives in a lot of things that we don’t like, we often just react more strongly to the negatives.