Mindfulness – 6 ways to achieve it

A few months ago I wrote a post about Self-Awareness and one of the ways to improving your self-awareness is through practicing Mindfulness. So, in this post I want to discuss mindfulness a little more in detail for you.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the human ability to be fully present, which means maintaining a moment by moment awareness of what we are doing; our thoughts; feelings and senses. Now this all may sound easy, yet we often veer from what we are doing and allow our minds to drift off and we lose touch with our body…this is why the practise of mindfulness is important. It is used so that we can return to the now and be fully present in each moment of our lives.

Practising mindfulness also involves acceptance, having no judgement of our own thoughts & feelings and understanding that there is no right or wrong way to think.

It is a tool that tunes our thoughts and feelings into the present moment rather than re-living the past or imagining the future.

Why is it important to practise Mindfulness?

A lot of studies that have shown how practising mindfulness – for just a few weeks – can have both physical and psychological benefits. Find some of these benefits are: –

• Mindfulness is good for our minds – It increases positive thoughts and emotions and reduces negative thoughts and emotions – including stress
• Mindfulness helps us to focus – Giving us the ability not to get distracted and therefore helps up improve attention skills, decision making and our memory
• Mindfulness improves our relationships – By being present in every relationship, there is no judgement but rather understanding of these relationships
• Being mindful creates compassion – We are more likely to help others in need and it also boosts self-compassion
• Mindfulness is good for our bodies – Practising mindfulness may improve our immune system in fighting off sickness
• Mindfulness affects how we treat and think of ourselves – Mindful people will live their lives more in line with their morals and values and they will not have self – esteem issues. Mindful people love themselves

There are many more benefits, however the above ones are some of the most important ones.

How do we achieve Mindfulness?

The most common way to achieve mindfulness is through meditation (being quiet and still).

I have chosen not talk about this as I am not able to do it myself at this moment. Fortunately, there are other ways of improving and achieving mindfulness.

The more we practise, like anything in life, the easier it becomes and the better we get at it.

Here are a few practises you can do daily until it becomes a normal way of life. Ensure that you are present at all times.

• Mindful Breathing

Bring attention to your breathing – the physical sensations of you breathe as it flows in and out of your body and nostrils

• Mindful Observation

Stop at any moment and look at your surroundings like you are seeing it for the first time.

Often we tend to miss the beauty all around us due to us always rushing around. Then, when you are looking around, look at whatever it is you are seeing and explore every aspect of its formation. Allow yourself to also connect with its energy

• Mindful Awareness

This practice is to ensure we don’t live on auto-polit. We must live on purpose.

Take a task that you do every day – like starting your car in the morning. Stop for a moment and be mindful of where you are, how you feel and where your car will be taking you. After you get home from work and you sit down to eat, really smell the food. Smell how good it is and, again, just stop and appreciate how lucky and blessed you are to have food to eat.

Above I have only listed 3 practises that I have personally used.  There are more that we all can use, and I list them below: –

• Touch

Stop at any time and notice where each part of your body is touching something else. Notice if the surface is hard, soft, hot, cold etc. and how it feels against you

• Movement

Make a conscious effort to make your movement slow and deliberate. Walking? Notice every step each foot takes and how you place it on the ground? Eating? Chew slowly and notice very texture and flavour

• Senses

Come back to the present moment at any time by scanning through your 5 senses. See where you are. Feel what is around you. Smell the aromas etc

The more we practise the better we will get.

To achieve Mindfulness, we need to create new habits.

Once we have achieved this, we will also have improved our self-awareness.

Good luck in your new Mindful practise!

Kind regards,