Mind Your Mindfulness

What is mindfulness? When I first heard about practicing it, I felt like I was learning about the next popular buzzword like “selfie” or “swag” that was encouraging to say but had no real meaning otherwise. After digging a little deeper into learning about what it meant, I learned that there’s actually a wide variety of mindfulness exercises out there that bring huge benefits to the mind. From taking a quick breather to focusing on the outer world, it really only takes a few minutes during the day to practice it. You definitely don’t need a guided therapist, a complicated textbook, or a day-long seminar to learn exactly how to get its positive effects. Let’s break down the best and easiest ways that I’ve found to decrease my inner stress and do mindfulness exercises for anxiety.

1. The first and easiest way I’ve found to practice mindfulness exercise is by starting with your breathing. Yes, it’s that simple. One thing you can do is by breathing in and out slowly when you wake up in the morning. Deeply inhale and exhale, allowing a full breath cycle to last from five to ten seconds. A good way to make this work is by breathing slowly through your nose and out with your mouth, releasing all the stress away as you do. Repeat this process for five to ten times, depending on how much time you want to spare. During this experience, let go of your thoughts and worries and focus on nothing but how your body is feeling. You’ll feel a much stronger awareness of your current emotions and calm your mind down from any stress built up from before.
2. Label your thoughts. Think of it as categorizing your emotions throughout the day, placing a label on them in folder, and storing them in a box in your mind. This simple exercise is designed to help you cultivate a heightened sense of awareness and appreciate being alive in the moment. For example, each time you start to think a negative thought during the day, take a short moment to stop, recognize that the words running through your mind are changing, and label them as damaging. After doing so, imagine that you’re placing these dark thoughts in a box and locking it really tight so they don’t affect the rest of your body. This process sounds like a hoax, but I promise that visualizing it all really helps bring a sense of peace when you’re going through hours of the most stress.
3. Music therapy can play a huge impact on influencing our mood for the better, which brings me to the third best way to practice mindfulness. Through music, we can process our thoughts and use honesty in recovery from any negative events that occur in our daily life. The next time that you feel extremely negative, turn on a relaxing track that has slower beats. And since much of what we feel listening to music can be influenced from a past event, like being reminded of a breakup, aim to listen to a new song you haven’t heard before from a neutral perspective.  Ignore any labels that you may have from the artist or producer and allow yourself to get lost in the journey of track for however long it lasts. Opening your mind to its dynamic melody and rhythm ultimately trains your mind to become less swayed and influenced from any new outside forces that come your way.
4. The next best method to practice mindfulness meditation for anxiety is taking the time each day to list what you’re grateful for in life. This could take no longer than five minutes to be reflective of all the blessings that are present in your environment. The point of this exercise is to practice giving more thanks and appreciate the seemingly less important things in life. These people, events, or opportunities are the vehicles that support our life but often fade into the background of our minds. Giving them attention helps spark our inner fire to work toward bigger and better things to come. For starters, think of five things every day that you’re thankful but don’t always focus on. Once you have identified all those things, try to make it your priority to find out everything you can about how they support your purpose and work towards appreciating them even more than before. Gratitude brings happiness above all else as it helps you feel more encouraged and support to take on your day.
5. Cleaning your space can be another great space for meditation. To bring more mindfulness into your life with cleaning, be sure to first think of it as a positive event rather than a boring chore. Then, select a space in your home that you want to focus on and think of only the benefits that making it neater, prettier, and less clogged will bring.  Concentrate on the broom in your hands as you sweep the floor or the squeaks that the glass cleaner makes when you wipe the windows. Feeling engulfed in the experience can help clear your mind and appreciate the hidden beauty your environment has once all the clutter and noise is cleared. The same thing goes for your mind, taking time to clear it and think about its foundation is essential to bring heightened spiritual in recovery from negativity.

Just Do It

I highly encourage you to just try one of these tips to start practicing mindfulness in your life. Start with something small and practice it over and over again until you feel comfortable to try another method. You’ll find that your concentration is much better than before, I know I did when I began trying yoga and meditation myself. Knowing about your personal habits and exactly how to improve them is essential to getting on the road to less stress and anxiety!