When you scroll through social media or hear the news, you listen to all the terrible happenings around the world. A vague sense of disquiet surrounds you, and you begin to worry about what your future holds.
Mindfulness is essential to lead a positive, healthy, and purposeful life. It brings you out of the negative feedback loops, boosts your mental health, and even enhances your immune system.
What is Mindfulness
In simple terms, mindfulness is your ability to be fully present, about where you are, what you’re doing, and not being reactive to what’s going on around you. It’s hard to nail down, but you’ll feel the difference if you practice mindfulness.
So here are some practical tips to practice mindfulness. Gear up, let’s go!
#1. Art of Gratitude
Being thankful for the tangible and intangible blessings in your life opens the door to a tsunami of positive emotions. When you’re filled with positivity, you build better relationships, enjoy good health, deal with adversity, and relish good experiences. Focussing on the positives in your life helps you live in the present moment. Thus you create a more positive future for yourself and those around you.
#2. Mindful Eating
Mindful eating helps you feel better about yourself, reduces binge eating, aids in weight loss, and helps you control your eating habits. Likewise, it allows you to enjoy food without any distraction and engage your senses to feel the color, texture, smell, and flavor. It encourages you to appreciate your food and maintain your overall health and wellbeing.
#3. Observe Your Environment
Wherever you are, observe your surroundings. For example, when you go for a walk, feel the gentle breeze, the sun on your face, look at the beautiful flowers, the tree with pretty autumn flowers, or if you can’t find any of these things, observe the passers-by. A mindful observation about your environment teaches you a thing or two.
#4. Practice Listening
Mindful listening is paying attention to what people say. And to understand what is being said, whenever a person talks, listen to the person without any distractions. Be wholly present and tune out thoughts that are irrelevant to the communication. Whether you agree with the person’s thinking is not essential. It means you’re graceful enough to allow them to express themselves freely.
#5. Never Multitask
Multitasking often creates a flawed perception of success. It causes excessive stress, burnout, sleeplessness and decreases efficiency. Research studies show that it shrinks gray matter and lowers IQ. On the other hand, mindfulness enhances memory and learning, improves gray matter and awareness, and modulates emotional control. So please concentrate on one thing and enjoy doing it.
Bonus Tip
# Know Your Body
These days we’re so busy we rarely stop to listen to our bodies. Your body may be sending warning signals of some disease that you totally ignore out of sheer busyness––and then one day suddenly face a hard truth. Contrarily being mindful is to know your body. Check whether you have any aches and pains, whether you’re tensed or anxious, whether you’re eating right, sleeping correctly, and being happy. If something bothers you, stop, spend some time and take care of your body.
Warming Up
Practicing mindfulness makes you more positive, happier and helps attract all the positive vibes. Try our tips to practice mindfulness and enjoy a peaceful life.