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In this blog we will provide some mindfulness techniques for beginners or anyone looking to create some habits of everyday mindfulness. We would love to hear any of your favorite ways to be mindful in the comments!
What is Mindfulness?
It feels like we’re all hearing a lot about mindfulness lately, and how it can help improve your life and lead to more happiness and fulfillment. But what is mindfulness? Is it difficult to do? Do you have to learn how to meditate or do you picture a room full of chanting monks?
In fact, mindfulness is simply the act of being present, or conscious, in any given moment. It’s about paying attention, or being aware, of what’s happening in the present moment rather than just going about your life on autopilot.
It’s also about quieting the chatter in your mind to just observe what is, rather than thinking your way through every moment. I like to think of it this way: the opposite of mindful is “mind full.” If your brain is full of thoughts and chatter, it’s hard to fully notice and appreciate the moment you are in.
Practicing mindfulness really can be quite simple to do and gets easier with repetition! In this guide, we’ll give you 6 easy mindfulness techniques to help you on your journey.
6 Tips for Mindful Living
There are many tools you can use to practice mindfulness in your everyday life. Here are a few simple activities you can try.
1. Notice your thoughts
Just noticing the thoughts you are thinking in a non-judgmental way can be an easy way to become more mindful.
You can try this simple exercise:
- Set a timer for 1 minute.
- Clear your mind of all thoughts. Just try to think about nothing at all.
- Now see if you can notice when the first thought pops into your mind.
- Gently release that thought and try once again to clear your mind.
- Continue this pattern until the timer is done.
The goal here is not to judge your thoughts or even judge the fact that you keep having thoughts, it’s just to bring awareness to the fact that you are thinking thoughts. And to remember that you do have the ability to quiet these thoughts if you practice. Try to do this simple exercise multiple times throughout your day.
2. Mindful Eating
In our busy lives, we often find ourselves eating on the run or mindlessly putting food in our mouths while watching TV, talking, or scrolling on our phones. Mindful eating just means putting your awareness fully on the task of eating.
Try this: next time you eat a meal or snack, put all other things aside and focus fully on eating your food. Notice how the food looks, smells, tastes, and feels in your mouth. You can think about where this food came from before it got to your plate. Take your time eating and enjoying the food and notice if this feels different from how you normally eat.
3. Practice Listening
When life gets busy, it can be very easy to fall into the habit of multi-tasking. One thing we often do is plan the next thing we will do in our minds while we are performing some other task. Have you ever found yourself in a conversation where you are hearing the other person’s words, but your mind is busy thinking of how you will respond to them or thinking of something else you just saw on your phone or that you have to do later?
Try this: next time you are having a conversation with someone, see if you can fully focus on what they are saying. Put your phone down, set aside whatever thoughts are going through your head, and just listen. This is not only a good way for you to practice mindfulness, it is a great feeling for a person to feel fully heard, and can increase your connection to and understanding of the people you interact with.
4. Switch up your Routines
One simple tip to create mindfulness is to switch up your usual routines. So often we go through life on autopilot: eat breakfast, brush your teeth, do the same exercise routine, take the same route to work, etc. And when your body knows what to do, your brain often goes into chatter mode.
Here are a few ideas you can try to switch up your normal routine and force your mind to be present as it figures out a different way to do things.
- Brush your teeth (or comb your hair, eat, etc.) with your non-dominant hand
- Plan a different way to work
- Take a different route for your daily walk
- Try a new kind of tea or coffee or eat something different for breakfast if you normally have the same thing
- Try a different kind of exercise than you usually do
- Take a break from the news and instead read a book or uplifting blog
What else can you think of that is part of your regular routine that you could try changing?
5. Take a Mindful Walk
You may have heard of the concept of mindful walking. This is really as simple as paying attention while you are taking a walk. You don’t even have to schedule a mindful walk; you can just try this the next time you are walking anywhere!
Try this: The next time you are taking a walk, try to be aware and present for as much of the time as you can. Pay attention to what is happening in each moment of your walk. How does your body feel? What sounds are you hearing? How does the air feel to you? Notice the plants or animals, or whatever else you are passing as you walk.
6. Focus on your Senses
Another way to cultivate mindfulness in any given moment is to just focus on one or more of your senses. You can try this anytime, and switch up which sense you focus on to keep it interesting.
Try this: Set a timer on your phone, close your eyes, and listen. Focus on whatever you are hearing and see if you can let go of any thoughts and just notice sounds.
Conclusion
This guide has shown that practicing mindfulness in your life can actually be quite simple. If you’re just starting out, see if you can commit to dedicating just a few minutes a day to one of these practices.
If you are looking for help, the Sparkle Revolution app provides inspirational, quick activities to help you practice mindfulness every day. Custom reminders and unique activities will help keep your practice fun and engaging, and will help you expand your mindfulness more and more each day.
Spark your Mindfulness with Sparkle Revolution
At Sparkle Revolution, our mission is to “Raise the frequency of the world, one person at a time.” Our app provides daily inspirational exercises to make mindfulness an easy and fun habit.
If you’re looking for a tool to help you practice mindfulness, download the Sparkle Revolution app today and enjoy a free trial.
