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Do you want to live a healthier, more fulfilled life? Well, while we all want this to happen, most of us have no idea how to do this. One way you can do this is by exercising mindfulness.
Ideally, being mindful is not just about making healthier, smarter food choices. Mindfulness-the action of being more present and involved in your life-has multiple significant health benefits, which include boosting brainpower, reducing stress, and improving sleep.
It can also assist you in getting more playful, fully enjoy a long conversation with a colleague over drinks, and eventually get restful night’s sleep.
In this post, you will learn about how you can fit mindfulness into your routine and lead a healthier life.
How Mindfulness Works and How to Incorporate It in Your Life
Sometimes, the most significant difficulty in learning a new practice or skill such as mindfulness is learning how you can fit it into your daily routine. Fortunately, with mindfulness, it doesn’t take much training or time.
Mindfulness activities are quite simple. The only catch, though, is ideally incorporating them into your daily routine. However, with consistency, an individual efficiently explores the real benefits of mindfulness, and the results follow soon after.
To incorporate mindfulness into your life, you need to add ‘mini’ practices and brief ‘reminders’ into your daily routine. By using several simple techniques to attain a meditative state, however brief, you can subsequently fit in your meditation practice into your everyday activities to attain constant focus and calm.
Below are four approaches for incorporating mindfulness into your week. By following these few techniques, you will be in a position to evoke a typical meditative state any time you need some creativity or calm.
1. Meditation Minutes
As a first, you can start with brief ‘meditation minutes’ across the entire day. For this exercise, a timer or clock is necessary. Set one minute periods. During this period, your goal is to concentrate and focus all your attention on your breathing only!
You can practice this either with your eyes closed or open. In case you get lost in your thoughts or lose touch with your breath while at it, let go of your thoughts and slowly bring your focus back on the breath. You can refocus as many times as necessary.
This practice can be a fantastic activity, especially for those times when you are feeling somewhat aggravated or stressed.
2. Mindful Listening – An Act of Compassion and Love
Many at times, when we are listening to other individuals, we are usually there body-wise but not completely present. In many cases, our mind is not focussed on listening to the other person, but it is entangled in its clatter.
We usually judge what the other person is saying, disagreeing, or agreeing mentally, or we are often thinking about what to say next.
The next time you are with an individual, try using this time as a way to exercise mindfulness. How? Move from just hearing their words to actually listening to what it is they have to say.
Shift all your attention to this individual. You will be surprised at how powerful listening is; it is usually a show of kindness and love. People genuinely appreciate it when you listen to what they are saying.
You will also discover that the other person also gives you his/her full attention as you are speaking.
3. Transformational ‘Chores’
Household chores take quite a significant portion of our time. Rather than thinking of them as typical tedious chores, you can transform them into mindfulness sessions. All you need to do is shift all your attention on the tasks at hand, at that moment.
Your aim should be to be fully engaged in your current task and to avoid rushing to complete the task or being caught up in your thoughts. For example, during laundry, don’t rush to fold your clothes or rush to simply ‘finish the job.’ Pay close attention to the details like the textures and the fabric.
This way, each little act turns into a sacred practice. It helps you stay in the moment, with you, your free space, as well as the surrounding world-all functioning in perfect harmony.
4. Eating With More Awareness
Finally, many of us have gradually grown out of touch with the simple and amazing pleasures of life, like enjoying our meals. One way you can appreciate the simple things if life is by eating mindfully.
This essentially helps you reclaim the pleasure of your meal, and better yet, it is an act that has been proven to promote healthy digestion and help in weight loss.
Ideally, when you sit to take your meal, focus all your attention on the immediate experience, and turn off all other distractions. Before taking your meal, pause! Have a good look at your meal, and focus on the scent.
Similarly, take small bites as you eat and eat your food slowly. The idea is to be wholly engrossed in the moment and the experience.
Final Word:
As you take your time to practice mindfulness, you will likely find yourself feeling calmer, kinder, and much more patient. These particular shifts in your overall experiences are bound to generate other significant changes in other aspects of your life.
Make it a commitment to adhere to these few steps throughout the week and watch yourself lead an enviable healthier lifestyle.
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