5 Easy Mindfulness Strategies
This month is Mindful May. A month-long campaign to introduce and encourage integration of mindful practices into everyday life.
But what is mindfulness?
Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of your thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment through a gentle, nurturing lens.
Mindfulness involves acceptance, meaning paying attention to your thoughts and feelings without judging them—without believing, for example, that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment. When you practice mindfulness, your thoughts tune into what you’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future.
Why is tuning into the present moment so important?
According to psychologists Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert of Harvard University, about 47% of waking hours are spent thinking about something other than what is happening in the present moment. All this mind-wandering leads to a lot of unhappiness. You are either ruminating on the past or worrying about the future that hasn’t happened yet.
“The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost.” -Killingsworth & Gilbert
Research suggests that using mindfulness techniques helps people to identify the source of their discontent better and process it in a positive and healthy way.
Here are five easy tips you can practice daily to incorporate mindfulness into your life and start shifting into a happier mindset.
Take deep breaths throughout the day
Be phone-free for 30 minutes first thing in the morning
Name 5 things you want every morning
Engage in 17 seconds of joy before you get out of bed
Name five things you are grateful for before you go to sleep
Recently, I was a guest on a podcast and asked about easy tips to live the life you want. For a more detailed description of why you should practice these tips, have a listen!
p.s. Here are three other ways I can help you master your mindset
1. Schedule a free consultation call