4 Ways to Practice Mindfulness
Meditating
Meditation is a fundamental practice when practicing mindfulness. It is foundational in our journey when speaking in terms of being mindful. Meditation has been proven to help with stress and anxiety levels. It’s been shown to aid in better sleep, improve concentration, lengthen our attention span, etc., and can be done anywhere at any time that’s quiet.
If you’re new to meditation, take a look at some of the below tips:
Take 5-10 minutes out of your day (could be morning, evening, or night)
Find a seat and quiet all distractions so that wherever you are, it is completely quiet. I usually like to keep my eyes closed and, personally, sit crisscrossed on the ground.
Start by taking a deep inhale, and count to three. Hold at the top, and release your tongue from the roof of your mouth. Take a deep, open-mouth exhale, and count to three.
Feel your body. Focus on your breath. Sit up one inch straighter, one inch higher to maintain your posture. Keep your chest open.
Optional – place your palms on your knees, whatever position you may be in.
Journaling
Journaling is an amazing way to practice mindfulness. It allows us to practice expressing our emotions, thoughts, and feelings by communicating them on paper. Speaking from personal experience, it has allowed me to not only become self-aware of my mind and more in tune with my emotions but to also organize a sometimes-scattered brain.
For a while, when I was struggling with depression in college, I woke up every morning and immediately wrote down three things that I was grateful for. Sometimes being very specific, and sometimes it was very broad. It trained me to see life in a different light and look internally and externally at the positives that surrounded me.
Using this personal anecdote, I believe journaling is a powerful tool that we can use for creative expression, cultivating mental clarity, encouraging personal growth, identifying patterns, and utilizing as a coping medium.
Journaling can take forms of any kind with no set structure. For those wanting to practice mindful goal-setting, start by setting one goal for the year, two monthly goals that bring you closer to that specific year goal, three weekly goals to bring you closer to those two monthly goals, and three very small daily goals that bring you closer to your weekly goals. It’s a personal method I used in college to help me navigate my classes and work. Recently, I have also started implementing this in my day-to-day life again.
If you’re new to journaling and need some recommendations that will inspire some deep thinking, check out the You Are a Badass: Guided Journal by Jen Sincero.
Be Present
This is so cheesy and you’ve probably heard this a million times, but it’s so true. There is so much technology today that keeps our minds busy, forcing us to generally multi-task that we forget to sometimes just be present in the moment. We give partial attention to multiple different tasks, platforms, and conversations that are happening in front of us rather than giving our undivided attention to one thing at a time.
Or, on a different note, we have big plans coming in the new year or maybe an upcoming trip that we are constantly planning and planning for. We count down the months, days, or hours and allocate our attention to the future. By doing this, we are at risk of always looking for the next thing, rather than appreciating being in our present.
Paying full attention to what is presently in front of us is one way to practice mindfulness and a powerful way to cultivate a positive mindset. By doing so, we enhance our concentration, improve relationships, create an atmosphere for decision-making, and magnify our overall enjoyment of life.
Be kind to yourself
Being kind to ourselves is arguably one of the best ways to practice mindfulness. The words we use to describe ourselves and feed into our mentality hold so much power. Internalizing a negative space within ourselves creates negative emotions, thoughts, and feelings. We begin to project this negativity externally, sometimes onto others and ultimately lose control over our emotions.
Showing ourselves kindness through words of love, encouragement, and positivity reduces self-judgment, increases emotional resilience, enhances stress management, and boosts acceptance of ourselves. We become the best versions of ourselves through loving ourselves and we, as humans, are better able to show the people we love genuine kindness and love.
Some questions to ask ourselves as we practice self-kindness:
What do words of encouragement look like for me?
How can I show myself the same love I show to others?
What does self-care look like for me?
What can I do for myself today to show myself kindness?
What does the best version of yourself look like?
Positive affirmations:
I am loved
I am doing my best
I am important
The world needs me
I have a purpose
My confidence is beautiful
I am beautiful
I keep going
I accept myself
