Mindfulness

In a recent post, we talked about the mind-body connection and what that means and looks like in our lives.  One aspect of mindset is mindfulness and this one tends to be easily overlooked.  I wanted to go a little deeper into mindfulness to explain its importance and how you can make it a more common practice in your busy schedule!

Mindfulness is allowing yourself to focus on sensations and feelings you have in the current moment.  The goal here is not to make judgment or analyze what you’re feeling, rather just take note.  Be aware of those thoughts, feelings, and sensations, take note of them, then let them pass on. 

Think of this like passing someone you know on the street.  You take notice they are there, maybe even say hello, but you keep on walking by.  We are not there to stop and ask what they are doing or where they are going and why.  In mindfulness, we notice how we are feeling, but don’t stop to analyze.

Practicing mindfulness can be very intimidating at first, we don’t always want to know how we are feeling or what sensations we’re experiencing.  However, it can have a huge impact on our mental wellness and how we process everyday life.  And unfortunately, the only thing that will make it easier and less daunting, is doing it more often.  So let’s look at a few ways to be more mindful of mindfulness!

Breathing, more specifically, diaphragm breathing (belly-breathing), is a great way to practice mindfulness.  Connecting with our breath allows us to slow things down and activate our parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for resting & digesting.  This actually calms down our nervous system and releases any tension we are holding onto.  Just think of all the stress just melting away!!  While you’re breathing, take note of what thoughts come to mind, what you’re feeling physically, mentally, and emotionally.  Then just like what we talked about previously, just notice these things and let them pass.  Once you become more aware of this, I encourage you to keep a journal and record some of the things that came to your mind.  That way later on, you can return to the notes of how you were feeling and process or analyze it.

So breathing and mindfulness are great and all, but in our busy lives, time passes quickly and we don’t remember to practice these things!  How can we remember to do this?  Help yourself out and put reminders up in your home, office, car, wherever you spend time throughout your day!  It can be as simple as an alarm on your phone set to go off 1-2 times a day, or a sticky note stuck to your console in the car, or next to your computer at work.  Also mentioned in the previous blog post, there are some other great resources out there as well such as apps and journals that help prompt mindfulness!  Don’t skip over this very important practice that allows you to become more aware of your body.  It wants to tell you a lot of things, all you have to do is take some time to listen!