Date: June 8, 2021

How To Practice Mindfulness

Everybody talks about mindfulness and how to implement the practice into our lives. Whether you are at home, at work, or driving the kids to school, mindfulness is an act of conscious happenings moment to moment.

Being mindful is more than practicing meditation. It exists in our bodies, minds, emotions, and how we navigate life from moment to moment. To give you an example of mindfulness, it’s embodying a state of awareness in everything you do or feel.

It can look like being aware of the sensations of the warm water running from the tap while you are washing dishes or being present while on the phone with your kids. Mindfulness is the next-level state of presence in your life in everything that you do.

If you are mindful, a perfect example is the little things such as remembering where you put your keys or remembering what you had for lunch the day before. Mindfulness is eliminating those deer in headlights moments and replacing them with total awareness.

Of course, nobody will be perfect on the first try, or ever. The goal is to practice and ground yourself into the present moment every day to help you eliminate and manage stress, create a connection to your body, and quiet the mind’s chatter.

We wrote this blog specifically for you to integrate different types of mindfulness practices into your life. HOWEVER, we will not focus on meditation or yoga and instead introduce other kinds of techniques that may be more favourable to you at this time.

How to practice mindfulness

9 Types Of Mindfulness Methods

Many people overlook the importance of daily stretching because plopping down on the sofa after a long day seems far more relaxing than grabbing a mat and doing a couple of exercises. If you are someone who tells yourself you should start stretching but avoids it like the plague, this is your sign to start. 

Since your life slowly shifted to working remotely, this is an opportunity to control your health and your new workflow and routine. Keep reading through this blog as we help you transition from couch potato to resilient potato.

Why Should You Stretch?

By now, everyone knows or has heard of mindfulness; with that said, we will skip the explanations and jump right into the techniques.

1. Observe Your Surroundings

Try stepping into the role of the observer when you are out and about. This exercise is simple, make a conscious decision to put all of your attention into your environment. The catch with this particular method is not to make any judgements; see your surroundings for what they are.

Look around at the trees, your pets if you have any, or gaze at the horizon. How is the water moving? What way are the trees swaying? Absorb the colours and feel the sensations on your skin while keeping your mind still.

You can do this ANYWHERE; let yourself become the observer of your surroundings without judgement. The best part about this practice is that if your mind starts to pull you away, you can begin again by simply directing your attention to another point of reference.

2. Practice Mindfulness Through Active Listening

Practicing active listening is a lot harder than it sounds. Often we assume, predict, and diagnose our responses or what the other person is talking about before they finish their sentence.

We apply what the other person is talking about and respond based on our own experience. We find ways to relate and connect to an individual by answering with our own stories. Don’t worry, we all do this.

Through active listening, we practice empathy and holding space for the person we are talking to. Which looks like this:

  • Not interrupting
  • Not thinking about what you are going to say while the person is speaking
  • Not responding with your own story or giving advice based on your own experience.Instead, you are:
  • Focusing your attention on what the person is saying.
  • Listening for the emotion
  • You are asking questions or simply empathizing.

Active listening takes practice and self-awareness to recognize when you have stopped being present in the conversation. We all want to be heard, seen, understood, and active listening is a great place to start by holding space for the person you are speaking with.

How to practice mindfulness

3. Implement Mindful Eating

We were having a conversation about mindful eating and how food is essential to our survival. Aside from the obvious but food also brings people together and invites connection. Unfortunately for us, especially in the western culture, we want things to be done fast.

With thousands of distractions all around us, we devour our foods and sometimes not at all, and we forget to nourish ourselves with the richness it has to offer. We are consuming empty calories, forgetting to taste all the flavours, and not showing gratitude for how it got onto the plate in the first place.

Here’s how to practice mindfulness through eating:

  • No use of electronics, including radio, TV, cellphones, etc.
  • Find a spot where you can enjoy your food uninterrupted
  • If you are enjoying a meal with someone, it is okay not to have a conversation
  • Chew your food 25+ times
  • Listen to your body when you are feeling full to avoid overeating
  • Be mindful of what kinds of foods you are putting into your body
  • Pay attention to how you feel after certain mealsThe goal is to incorporate all of those things; however, for starters, start with one thing and do it every day until it becomes second nature.

4. Focus On Your Breath

This method sounds pretty straightforward, yet we are not thinking about the breath or observing how we breathe most of the time. Our bodies are amazing, and we can dive deep into how we feel if we pay attention to our breath.

Through years of exposure to traumas, life experiences, and conversations, we have learned how to cope with stimuli that trigger our anxiety, anger, sadness, etc. We have learned to cut ourselves off in ways that we do not have to dip into those areas of our lives.

This specific technique, we are not suggesting for you to drop into your traumas or start crying, but focus on your breath and the feeling of the air leaving your nostrils.

Focusing your attention on the breath can help you focus your mind and slow down the thoughts that are causing you to feel anxious. There is no right or wrong way of doing this; breathe and fix your mind on the breath.

We suggest starting with 2-5 minutes every day and seeing where the journey will take you.

How to practice mindfulness

5. Play With Your Senses

We are activating our senses every day, but how often do we pay attention to how things feel, taste, smell, or sound?

Playing with your senses encourages you to step into the present moment and observe each of the five senses.

Here are things you can ask yourself when you are playing with your senses:

  • How does this feel right now? What kind of sensations do you notice on your skin?
  • How does this food taste?
  • How am I chewing my food? What are the textures? Flavours? Aromas?
  • What do you see? What is it like to observe the way something looks?
  • What do I hear outside?

One of our favorite ways of using this method is when we are close to a pet. If you watch your pet move around, feel their fur, observe their paws, listen to them purr, it is quite beautiful to witness how in the moment they are.

6. Pay Attention To Your Heart

Have you ever tried the practice of paying attention to your heartbeat?

We recommend trying this practice when you are feeling anxious, sad, or disconnected from yourself. Directing your attention to your heartbeat is a sentimental way of showing up for yourself energetically and emotionally.

It is a sacred acknowledgement of your being, acceptance of how you are feeling in that moment, and holding space for yourself to be with whatever is happening in your mind, heart, and body.

We recommend placing your hand or both hands over your heart while taking deep breaths and simply observing that moment. The most important part of this practice is not to judge what comes up and simply watch.

6. Pay Attention To Your Heart

You have probably heard and seen many things on the internet talking about practising gratitude or journal prompts posted in every book store.

Yes, the method of showing gratitude for things you are thankful for is essential and doing it with a glad heart will slowly help you shift your perspective on your life. We mean by this that when you take time out of your day to reflect and acknowledge the things that mean a lot to you, you train your mind to then think about those things more often.

Gratitude helps us open our hearts and see the things we have in our life RIGHT NOW to learn to appreciate vs. thinking about what we don’t have. Practicing gratitude is simple; you can write things down at the end of the day in your journal or practice gratitude first thing when you get up in the morning.

The freedom to choose is entirely up to you. Get creative with this one!

How to practice mindfulness

8. Avoid Making Judgements

Do you realize it when you make a judgement about something or someone?

A judgment means good or bad; it is simply a personal judgment that you make about something such as calling your friend beautiful or saying that the house over there is ugly. When you are practicing mindfulness, the challenge is not to make judgements about anything.

As human beings, somewhere down the line, we started to judge everything.

Now, the practice is to unlearn making judgements. We are not trying to make you wrong in any way and only direct your attention to it, so next time somebody shows up wearing something you don’t like, you don’t judge.

Or the next time you pass judgement about another human being, you are aware of it. By being mindful, you then have the choice to make another choice.

Or when you are trying to do yoga or meditate, and somebody is loud outside, you don’t judge it.

The practice of avoiding making judgements is to accept things and situations unconditionally, which is a lot harder than it sounds.

9. Body Scan

We were not going to throw this one up, but this is a great way to connect to your body.

When you are lying down in bed at night, take five minutes with your eyes closed to scan your body with your mind head to toe while focusing on your breath.

Performing a body scan before heading to sleep can aid better sleep, relax the mind, and decrease stress while bringing you back to yourself. A body scan will also help you create a stronger relationship with yourself and drop into your senses.

We found that people who are more in tune with their bodies are more conscious about what they put in them.

The Benefits Of Practicing Mindfulness

Incorporating mindfulness into your day helps relieve stress, treat heart disease, decrease blood pressure, help with chronic pain, and much more. Overall the practice of mindfulness helps improve your mental health without having to rely on medication.

Setting aside 5 minutes every day to be mindful will have tremendous effects on your mental health and wellbeing.

How to practice mindfulness

Your Takeaway

We designed this blog to give you ideas about how you, too, can practice mindfulness in your daily life. We mentioned before that being mindful does not necessarily have to consist of daily yoga or meditation.

We know that daily life can get hectic from time to time, if not always, so we wanted to provide you with tools that you can start using today to be more mindful that don't eat away much of your time.

The techniques we shared with you today are things that we have personally tried ourselves and have seen incredible results.

We have experienced a change in perspective, relationships, and personal life. We like to think of mindfulness as an act of self-care and a doorway to a more fulfilling life.

Remember that when you don’t make a decision, that is a decision in itself. However, we want you to know that the invitation to try is there, at your own pace.

So pick a mindfulness practice, and give it your best shot. 🙂

10th Anniversary Getaway!

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