Most of us ignore the need to pay attention to the present moment. We’re often not paying close attention to what’s happening in our minds and body in real time. Being mindful is when you’re aware of what’s happening in and around you. It’s like watching your life from a distance and seeing the right action to take at every point in your life.
The Role of Mindfulness on Your Mental Health
Mindfulness plays a big role in improving your overall mental health. According to research, the practice helps people manage stress, depression, addiction, and anxiety. It has shown to be effective in people with health conditions like hypertension, chronic pain, and heart failure.
Mindfulness helps you become more aware of what’s happening in the present moment and to understand your thought patterns. It allows you to step out of your mind and observe those patterns. This way, you can notice when you’re drifting into a mental health problem.
When you practice mindfulness, it gets easy to identify stress, anxiety, or depression signals early on. You become more positive in the way you respond to signs of mental health problems. It’s like making peace with your body by listening and responding to each sensation you experience.
Psychologists and mental health therapists recommend mindfulness as a way to help heal and head off depression. Research also shows that this practice gives you an open and accepting attitude. You’re able to accept anything that arises, rather than trying to avoid or ignore problems.
Mindfulness can teach you how to manage your emotions in a way that positively changes your behavior. Practicing mindfulness techniques, such as guided meditations, helps to improve your awareness and can cure memory loss.
Lifestyle Changes for Mindfulness
We all want to be able to understand our thought patterns and how they influence our actions and perception. To achieve this level of awareness, you need to make some changes in your daily routine or adopt new practices. Here are some tips to get you started:
Mindful breathing. This exercise can be a great and fun way to learn mindfulness. It involves taking time to concentrate on your breathing and allowing yourself to feel whatever feeling that runs through your mind and body during the process. You can count the time between when you inhale and exhale. For example, if you’re practicing mindful breathing while walking, you can count five steps while breathing in, and five steps while breathing out.
Mindful walking. For a start, walk slowly as you feel everything that arises in your body when you make every step. Feel the sensation in your foot muscles and the feeling of your body as it makes contact with the ground. If your mind drifts away, try to bring it back by concentrating on the feeling of your feet touching the floor or ground.
Mindful eating. This technique is also a great way to get off of autopilot and enjoy the mindfulness experience. The secret here is to give your mealtime full attention. Take time to observe the details of your meal — feel the taste, the smell, and how it feels in your mouth and when it goes down your throat. When you bring all your attention to your food, you may realize that you enjoy the meal more than when you eat passively.
Mindful listening. This is a very popular way to raise your awareness and improve your mindfulness. Active listening involves tuning yourself to your environment and paying attention to what it has to say. It could be a conversation that you pay keen attention to when the speaker is talking. You could do this by observing their body movements and how they pronounce words.
Other Helpful Mindfulness Tips
In addition to the mindfulness exercises mentioned above, these tips could also be helpful to keep you focused:
- Practice regularly
- Adopt new habits
- Monitor your thoughts and name your feelings
- Practice guided meditation and Yoga
Show Sources
Photo Credit: wagnerokasaki / Getty Images
SOURCES:
HelpGuide: “Benefits of Mindfulness.”
Mental Health Foundation: “How to look after your mental health using mindfulness.”
National Health Service: “Mindfulness.”
Regents of the University of Minnesota: “How Mindfulness Works.”, “Mindfulness for Mental Health.”
