Have you ever gone through the day, busy in your thoughts,
missing to notice so many of the things happening around you,
and in the end of the day feeling like you didn't even notice the day go by
or couldn't even remember what exactly happened during the day?
If that’s ever happened to you, mindfulness might be a great topic to explore.
People often have an understanding of mindfulness as something very complicated, and perhaps a bit abstract, something that might be hard to learn, or that requires a lot of time and practice to master. But that's not true!
Building in more mindfulness in everyday can be very simple yet bring a lot of enjoyment and living live just a little bit more fully.
Mindfulness means developing the ability to guide our attention - but at the same time doing so with calm attitude, with gentle kindness, without judgement or clinging.
Mindfulness is grounded in 3 pillars: Attention, Intention and Attitude
In order to be mindful, we keep our Attention focused, directed, guided purposefully.
The Intention of mindfulness is approaching things to which we put our attention with compassion, acceptance and kindness.
And the Attitude of mindfulness is one of balanced mind, putting our mind in observer mode, unattached to our subjective experience.
So, living mindfully is about presence, but also about approaching ourselves, others and the whole world with kind, friendly and curious attention.
But the real magic of mindfulness lies in applying it!
That means taking a moment to take couple of big deep breaths when you wake up in the morning, and awake awareness of your body (perhaps with a nice short stretch?) and mind, perhaps by asking yourself “How am I today”? or “What’s on my mind today?”.
And then going mindfully through the day, engaging our mind and senses continuously.
Showering or brushing your teeth with full attention on the activity you are doing, with gentleness towards yourself, with curiosity about how your body and mind feels.
Being mindful in your body means becoming more present and aware of it, which you can develop simply by building a habit of checking in with your body several times a day by listening to it’s signals, becoming aware of the way you move and the way your body feels - and in that way strengthening the connection to yourself.
Being mindful of your senses means to watch the world with the eyes of a beginner, curiously, openly, and kindly.
It means to listen to the sounds with attention as if you hear them for the first time.
It means becoming more aware of your sense of touch, feeling of temperature or humidity on your skin, or feeling of air or water, or perhaps being aware how it feels to cuddle some of our furry pets.
It means eating by focusing fully on experiencing the food - slowing down, feeling the tastes and textures with all senses.
You might already notice that the best friend of mindfulness is enjoyment, as mindfulness gives you not only more presence and focus, but also opens you to enjoy life more fully.
This can be practiced in almost every daily activity, such as walking mindfully, with awareness of movements of your body, and noticing details around you, such as elevation of the ground on which you are walking or little things that you can see or hear around you.
Being mindful in your mind is all about developing awareness of your own thoughts and self-talk - befriending yourself and understanding what is playing out in your head without judgement, just gently observing.
This is a simple habit of everyday thought that you can develop by asking yourself throughout the day “What am I thinking” or “What’s on my mind” or simply “How am I doing”?
And it is a habit that will give you such a beautiful feeling of stillness of mind.
And, finally, being mindful in your heart means connecting genuinely and openly with others - giving them your full attention when engaging in a conversation, being open, accepting and non-judgemental, listening to them deeply, with curiosity, and wishing them well.
Mindfulness is not about perfection or pressure to do things mindfully – it is really about approaching things with curiosity and openness, bringing in more awareness into all that we do, and living with a bit less judgement and a bit more kindness towards ourselves and others.
So how about trying to go through this day a bit more mindfully today?
The great way to start is to take a deep slow breath right now and to observe how that feels in your body. Perhaps you can follow up that breath with a just one long slow stretch too? And notice how that feels?
And for some more ideas on mindfulness in everyday life, I am happy to share with you this colorful visual reminder :D
P.S. and if you wish to learn and explore more about mindfulness, I will be sharing and writing more about formal ways to learn it and develop it much deeper in one of the next posts
