What if there was something that could lower your stress, help protect you against anxiety and depression, improve your sleep as well as your mood – all without any side effects? It’s called mindfulness and I wanted to write about it because it is amazing. Mindfulness is something that I practice a lot in my daily life and preach it to my clients on a daily basis because of its effects on depression, anxiety and stress.
So, What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is the psychological awareness of one’s own thoughts, feelings and sensations. It brings your attention to the internal and external experiences that are occurring in the moment as they are happening and helps create a feeling of calmness and rejuvenation.
It involves a gentle acceptance of whatever comes into your awareness in the moment. It’s not so much about reaching an end goal, but about exploring your experience and expanding your awareness of your own inner world – the things that drive you, motivate you, get in your way, trip you up, keep you stuck. The more you practice mindfulness, the more you will come to understand how your thoughts, feelings or sensations influence each other, as well as your mood and the way you respond to the world.
Benefits of Mindfulness
There are so many benefits that stream from mindfulness, all proven through research. Here are some of them:
- Helps reduce anxiety and depression.
Mindfulness has been shown to significantly reduce anxiety in adolescents, and in adults by up to 38% and improve overall mood. It does this by increasing activity in the part of the brain that processes cognitive and emotional information, and the part of the brain that controls worrying. - Improve sleep quality, reduce fatigue.
A regular mindfulness practice can improve sleep quality, and reduce insomnia and fatigue. - Improves concentration.
Mindfulness can improve attention, increasing concentration and improving the ability to ignore distractions. This is crucial for academic success for all children, particularly those with ADHD.
5 Ways to Practice Mindfulness.
Mindfulness can be difficult to master at first. Our minds are used to wandering, and we will often be tempted to fix on a thought or a feeling, judge it as good or bad, or work hard to analyze or change it. Sometimes this will be useful, but we also need to be able to sit with our experience and be fully in the moment, without being dragged away by thoughts or feelings that might do damage if they hold on for too long.
If you haven’t practiced mindfulness before, try to replace any judgement you might have about whether or not you’re doing it properly, with acknowledgement that you are doing the very best you can in the moment. What’s important is that you are doing it. The rest will come with practice. The more you practice mindfulness, the easier it will become to stay present and focus your attention on where you want it, rather than on wherever your mind might take you.
Remember also that the more you practice mindfulness, the more you will benefit from it. The most important thing is to start, and to work towards a regular practice of at least twenty minutes each day. If twenty minutes is difficult to find, and sometimes it can be, try for two ten minute sessions. Here are some different ways to practice mindfulness:
1. Download an App.
There are quite a few apps that contain guided mindfulness sessions. The Mindfulness App is one of them as well as Headspace: Meditation. Either one of these Apps are user-friendly and help guide you through completing a mindfulness activity as well as keep track of your efforts. My personal favorite is Headspace – the activities can be done in 3, 5, or 10 minute sessions and the narrator walks you through mindfulness activities. You can set a time of day that you want to meditate – I set mine for after I wake up and find this helpful in getting my day started on the right foot.
2. Breathe.
Get comfortable and start to breathe strong, deep, slow breaths, making sure that your belly is rising and falling as you breathe. Be aware of what is happening in your body as the breath comes in, and then as it leaves you. Acknowledge your thoughts if they come. Let them be, and then let them go. If your mind moves away, just acknowledge that your mind has wandered, acknowledge where it went, and gently bring your focus back to your breath. Be present without needing to hurry things along, or move on to the next part of your day. This can be difficult, but remind yourself that whatever happens is okay. Just notice, let it be, and then let it go.
3. Take a mindful bath or shower.
Feel the water against your skin, the taste of the water, the smell of the soap and shampoo, the calm of you. What do you notice about the temperature? Is it too cold? Too hot? Perfect? Watch and listen as the water as it hits your skin and falls to the ground. Touch your skin and notice what this is like for you. Is it comfortable? Uncomfortable? Familiar? Unfamiliar? Be aware of your thoughts and feelings as you do this.
4. Take a mindful walk.
To take a mindful walk, give your full attention to the experience of walking. Focus your attention on the actual experience of walking. Feel the ground beneath you as you walk. Listen and notice what this is like. Engage your senses as you do this. Notice the sights, the sounds, the smells, and the feel of the world as you move through it.
5. Mindful eating.
To practice mindfulness while you are eating, engage fully with the experience of eating, without other distractions. Smell the food, look at and chew the food thoughtfully. Be fully present as you eat, without focusing on other people, the conversation, or the things you have to do when you finish. Eating is one of the most powerful ways to nurture ourselves. Notice any thoughts or feelings that come to you as you are eating. What are the feelings that come up for you when you eat? Happiness? Security? Guilt? Sadness? What do you tell yourself about eating? Again, let go of any temptation to judge your thoughts or feelings. There are no right or wrong answers – just awareness.
And finally …
It’s so easy to fall into habitual ways of thinking, feeling and doing. Mindfulness slows the process down, and brings a sense of meaningfulness to even the most mundane, everyday tasks. It allows us to engage all of our senses and experience moments of our day without the distractions that may dilute our experiences.
The opportunities for mindfulness happen every day – multiple times a day. Engaging in the things we do regularly – showering, washing the dishes, cleaning, being, noticing – but being with them fully, with every sense switched on, and without drifting into the future or the past, might be easier said than done, but it’s a powerful way to strengthen our mind, body and spirit.
If you are new to mindfulness, it’s important to be patient and kind with yourself. If your mind is full and a seasoned wanderer, it might push hard at first against any attempt to slow it down or bring it to the present. Start where you are, and with consistency and regular practice, you’ll finish where you want to be. Every Monday on this blog I will be posting a new mindfulness activity in a series called Mindful Mondays. I hope you join me here.
