11 ways to have a mindful day

 

1. One Minute Of Mindfulness

Initially, I would recommend that you start you day of with a minimum of  5 minutes of just sitting and being in the moment.

You can introduce short ‘meditation minutes’ throughout your day.  During this time, your task is to focus your entire attention on your breathing, and nothing else.

Tip - most people believe that breathing in through your mouth and out through your nose is the correct way to take a deep breath. It isn't breathing in through your nose and out through it will allow your lungs to expand to their full capacity, filling you whole body with oxygen.

Do this as many times as you can throughout the day.

2. Mindful listening

Be in the now. When listening to another person we are often there in body, but not fully present. Very often, we are not focusing on listening to them; we are caught up in our own mind chatter. We judge what they are saying, mentally agreeing or disagreeing, or we think about what we want to say next.

Focus all of your attention on the other person. You’ll be amazed at the power of listening; it’s an act of love and kindness.

3. Mindful chores

Turn your ordinary household tasks into mindfulness sessions. For many of us, housework takes up quite a good portion of our lives. Instead of thinking of it as just a boring chore, the task can becomes a mindfulness ritual.

Once again, practice being in the now and giving everything to the task at hand. Whether that is in your personal life or in work you will be more productive and give the task at hand one 100%, regardless you are doing.

4. Eating mindfully

Eating mindfully can help you reclaim the pleasure of food. So many of us have become out of touch with this, one of life’s most simple and wonderful pleasures. Mindful eating has been shown to aid weight loss and have aided healthy digestion.

Sit and eat. It is that simple.

5. Slow down!

Physically slowing down helps us to mentally slow down

Our culture is one of business, effort, deadlines, striving and achieving. The information age has us racing through life at a pace that would make our forefathers’ heads spin— but are we happier?
Many of us rarely allow ourselves to slow down and be fully present for the precious moments of our lives, and we’re shortchanging our lives living like that.

Slow down actually walk instead of running through your day if we race through life we miss half the joy of getting there.

6. One thing mentality

Stop and do the one thing you are meant to be doing.

For a couple of decades now, the catch phrase has been “multi-tasking.” Some people boast of their multitasking abilities on their resumes or at job interviews, others do it among friends and family as they talk about the things they try to get done in a day.

There is a myth that multitasking make us more productive; in reality, it drains us faster. Trying to spread our attention so thin and keep up with so many things makes us more prone to mistakes. We’re not more productive; we’re just busier, both mentally and physically, exhausting ourselves needlessly.

7.’Watch’ The Mind

Stop. Through self-observation, mindfulness automatically streams into your life. The moment you realize you are not being mindful – you are mindful!

Watch your thoughts!

8. Nothing Time

Living in a culture where idleness is frowned on has made many of us forget how to be still and do nothing at all. The mentality has been ingrained in us that screams, do, do, do! Go, go, go! The idea of sitting and doing nothing can be so foreign to us, it makes many feel uncomfortable—guilty, even.
We don’t have to be doing all the time, though. Take some nothing time each day. Even if it’s just five minutes, sit for that five minutes and do… nothing.

Sit silently in a favourite chair or place and just simply be.

9. Mindful Walking

Walking can give you a chance to spend time being mindful without taking any extra time from your day. Whether you’re walking around your neighbourhood, from the car to the store or through the hallways at work, you can turn it into a meditative exercise.

10. Come To Your Senses

As you go about your day be mindful of the feel of sun on your skin or the wind in your hair when you leave the house. Be mindful of the softness of a chair, or the smoothness of a stone. Take a breath and put your focus on what scents you’re taking in.

11. Urge Surfing

Sometimes we have urges, cravings, impulses.

These can actually be transformed into a wonderful ‘wake up call’ into mindfulness.

The next time you feel an urge, know that you don’t have to fight it; you don’t have to follow or give into it either. You can simply be there to observe it with mindful awareness.


I hope you are inspired

Loves Annie xxx