Mindfulness is a proven strategy for boosting happiness and wellbeing.
But just like happiness, mindfulness can be challenging and elusive.
So here are 5 simple ways to build mindfulness (and ultimately, happiness) in to your daily living…
via Elite Daily by Georgina Berbari
When you think of mindfulness, I’m willing to bet some of the images that immediately pop into your mind include yoga mats, people humming “om,” and weird, transcendental music. And yeah, practicing mindfulness can include all of those things, but it can also be way less complicated than all of that. Mindfulness doesn’t have to entail hour-long meditation sessions or ancient mantras that you say aloud over and over again. There are plenty of easy ways to practice mindfulness in your everyday life, because the thing is, you can be mindful at any time, anywhere — no yoga mats or spiritual guides required.
According to Lisa Sussman, LMHC, clinical director at The Palm Beach Institute, a Delphi Behavioral Health Group, mindfulness is the practice of being fully aware and grounded in the present moment, while taking into account your feelings and thoughts without judging them. But being ~in the moment~ without judgment is a skill that requires ongoing, repetitive practice, Sussman tells Elite Daily over email, which is why it can often seem like a ridiculous amount of work that not everyone is willing to take on.
Pax Tandon, a mindfulness expert and author of the book Mindfulness Matters: A Guide to Mastering Your Life, says mindfulness can sometimes be challenging for beginners because they’ve never actually stopped to be in the moment before. It’s pretty likely that your mind is constantly running or craving stimulation of some kind, she says — you’ve just never realized that that’s how your brain works most of the time. “But we’re human beings, not human doings,” Tandon tells Elite Daily over email. “We need to learn to slow down and just be present to the miracle of being alive.”
The good news is, mindfulness can easily be integrated into your routine because so many of the daily tasks you might take for granted — eating, walking, listening to music — are all primed for more mindfulness. But it’s up to you to challenge your mindset and truly place yourself in the present moment as you’re doing these things.
Try Walking Mindfully
According to Tandon, walking mindfully simply means concentrating your attention fully on the act of walking — so yes, scrolling through Twitter while you walk doesn’t count. “This is best done in a contained space, like a garden, where you can walk about 10 feet in one direction, turn around, and walk back again,” Tandon tells Elite Daily.
Walking mindfully, she says, will allow you to move the focus away from where you’re going directionally, and shift it toward the act of walking itself. “Try placing your attention on each element of your stride — from when you step forward and feel your leg muscles activate, to when your heel hits the ground, to the forward action of your foot as it lowers to the ground,” Tandon explains. She recommends tuning into specific sensations here, like the feeling you get as the ball of your foot makes contact with the ground, “the counterposed action of your toes first relaxing onto the ground, and then the pressure as you push off of them.”
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