“Be where you are, otherwise you will miss your life.”
– Buddha
Have you ever zoned off doing something & can’t remember what was happening right in front of you? That’s probably because we’re always rushing about so much that ‘busy’ has become our middle name. But between all the “must-do”s and “need to be done”s we miss out on experiencing how it feels to be alive.
That’s one of the benefits of mindfulness – it offers us little windows of clarity to experience, be fully present, & appreciate life as it happens instead of going about it with half-closed eyes relying on images that come up in our mind connected with familiar words.
When we hear the word “working”, it brings up a certain picture in our mind. But noticing how your body moves while you work, how you think, what do you see, feel, hear, smell, & may be even taste brings that very word alive in 3D. It adds a dash of amazement & unusual to the usual. That’s the power of mindfulness.
What is mindfulness:
Over the last few years, the word ‘mindfulness’ has become an effortless part of our vocabulary. Whether you are watching a TED talk, searching on Amazon, talking to your kid’s teacher or your gym instructor – it makes an appearance everywhere.
So exactly what is mindfulness? Broadly speaking, you can go about it two ways.
Mindfulness means focusing on the present. In other words, experiences that fall in the wide-area around meditation as taught in ancient cultures around the world.
But it has also come to represent the focused attention you pay to any task. Mindful walking is a good example of this.
You focus on the act of walking, how your foot touches the ground heel first moving the weight gradually till it leaves the toes & shift to the other foot as it touches the ground heel first. You notice how the ground feels under your foot, how your body moves, your breathing, what you can hear, see, & smell.
Why being mindful is important:
What is the purpose of mindfulness? Why does mindfulness matter in what we have to do every day at home, work, or wherever we are? The benefits mentioned below (backed by research) will make it clearer how it shows up in our daily life.
- Improved ability to concentrate for longer.
- Faster stress relief.
- Reduced anxiety.
- Improved emotional health.
- Increased working memory capacity.
- Better awareness of who you truly are.
- Reduced body dissatisfaction.
- Improved self-compassion.
- Good quality sleep.
- and so much more.
What are some mindfulness exercises:
Though there are many exercises to add mindful moments to our day, the health benefits of mindfulness meditation make it one of the best. But if you’re not used to doing meditation, it would be a better idea to begin with something simpler. It would be easier to stick to when trying to add to your daily routine.
While there are quite a few mindfulness exercise routines that you can find on Google, Youtube, etc., you can also create routines of your own to begin with that suit you best.
The key is complete focus on the one thing you choose, becoming aware of your senses while doing that, letting thoughts flow but gently guiding them back to the action in focus. If you already do yoga, adding mindfulness yoga would add more power to the routine.
Here are some other mindfulness techniques to spark ideas for you:
- Mindful awareness of where you are, what you’re doing, feeling, thinking whenever it is safe & possible to pause & notice.
- Walking mindfully.
- Mindful breathing.
- Eating mindfully.
- Mindful morning routine. Focus on each small action no matter how routine & on your thoughts, feelings, & sensations.
- Mindful bathing. Follow the flow of water from your head to toe, how it feels on your skin, how it makes your feel, what can your hear & just enjoy every feeling without thinking of what’s to happen next.
- Mindful coloring where you focus on how each stroke fills up space on the page with color, how does it feel when the color meets the page (soft, wet, scratchy, rough), how you move your hands to stay within the lines, how your fingers wrap around the coloring pen/pencil/brush, & more.
- Mindful chores. Give your undivided attention to a chore noticing every action step, your body movement, what you see, hear, & feel.
How does mindfulness help with anxiety:
“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” – Buddha
According to psychiatrist Dr. Elizabeth Hoge of Massachusetts General Hospital, “People with anxiety have a problem dealing with distracting thoughts that have too much power. They can’t distinguish between a problem-solving thought and a nagging worry that has no benefit.” With mindfulness, the brain can be trained to process these thoughts differently.
Being mindful can help you diffuse a potential anxiety attack. But to get long-term benefits of mindfulness for anxiety, it’s important to make it a part of your personality.
This is how being mindful helps with our response to stress:
1. Mindfulness helps create better awareness of our emotions. And this makes it easier to manage them properly and minimize anxiety attacks.
2. Better self-acceptance helps be more confident about the results of any action, and so reduces anxiety.
3. With improved attention, it is easier to focus on the task at hand rather than get distracted by worry.
4. It calms the brain down from reactive action to taking a step back & being open to seeing the big picture. And so, realizing that the fears are not real but only a part of their brain’s reaction to the situation.
“There is something wonderfully bold and liberating about saying yes to our entire imperfect and messy life.”
– Tara Brach
Research on benefits of mindfulness:
Here’s an interesting fact – clinical studies involving mindfulness went up from 11 in 1995-97 to 216 in 2013-15. Why is this important?
Because in the words of Gaelle Desbordes, a neuroscientist at Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, “If we want that to become a therapy or something offered in the community, we need to demonstrate [its benefits] scientifically.”
She showed through fMRI evidence that the change in brain activity of people who meditate holds even when they are busy in their daily life.
What it means is that meditation doesn’t simply provide a break from our busy lives but also positively affects how we experience life. It shifts our focus to the present stopping replay of problems over & over in our head.
The American Psychological Association also mentioned several mindfulness-benefits research & studies that show how mindfulness meditation helps
- reduce stress
- improve a positive outlook in life
- decrease anxiety.
- improve focus
- achieve better emotional health, and
- enjoy better health.
Related:
How to Use the Power of Positive Thinking – Overcome Limiting Beliefs
Benefits of Mindfulness:
This is a list of mindfulness benefits that will help you decide which technique is more suited to your needs, level of expertise, time available, & the effort you can spare.
1. Benefits of mindful breathing:
This is something that can be effective immediately as well as be good for your long-term mental & physical health.
In a stressful situation or when we feel a panic attack coming, taking deep breaths often helps a lot. It is because mindfulness of breathing takes the focus away from whatever’s stressing us out, calming down our mind. Plus, the disturbed oxygen-carbon dioxide balance caused by stressful short breaths returns to normal & we feel physically better.
It’s easy to make a habit of mindful breathing even if you have only 10 minutes to spare each day. In the long run, it can mean improved concentration, more energy, reduced blood pressure, improved heart health, better emotional control and so much more.
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What you can do:
- Sit comfortably in a safe & relaxed space.
- Relax the shoulder muscles & close your eyes.
- Closing one nostril with the thumb breathe in slowly till comfortable.
- Close the other nostril with your ring finger & release the thumb over the other nostril.
- Breathe out slowly through the other nostril. Repeat for around 30 reps.
- Your stomach should rise while breathing in. Squeeze your belly to breathe out as much air as possible.
- Notice the flow of breath in, through, & out of your body. Focus also on how your chest & stomach move.
- When thoughts start crowding your mind, gently bring your focus back to the action of breathing.
- Do this at least once a day.
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2. Benefits of mindfulness on the brain:
Ian Robertson of the Global Brain Health Institute at Trinity says “Brains typically lose mass as they age, but less so in the brains of long-term meditators… mindfulness meditation techniques actually strengthen brain networks.”
Research has shown positive changes in the brain with regular mindfulness sessions that control our stress response, memory, emotions, learning, empathy, & compassion.
So whichever mindfulness technique you choose, whether walking, sitting, breathing, or body scan mindfulness, mindful yoga, or any other technique, it can positively impact your life if done consistently.
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What you can do:
- Find a calm & safe space (indoors or outdoors) where you can take 15 comfortable strides without having to turn.
- Stand in a comfortable position & start walking slowly taking comfortable strides.
- Focus on how you raise one foot, touch the ground heel first, shift the weight gradually to your toes, then lift the other foot to do the same actions.
- Once you reach the end, stop, focus on how you are breathing. Turn around & resume your walk focusing on the shift of weight & the mechanics involved.
- Let thoughts float in & out of your head without resisting them. But bring your focus gently back to the action of walking if one of the thoughts starts taking over.
- Make it a part of your daily routine to get the benefits of mindfulness.
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“Every experience, no matter how bad it seems, holds within it a blessing of some kind. The goal is to find it.”
– Buddha
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3. Benefits of mindful eating:
Even if you can’t find time to set aside for any mindfulness technique, you would still need to eat to survive, right? Use this time to set the phone, tablet, & laptop aside, switch off the TV & give your full attention to the food that’s in front of you.
Mindful eating engages your senses of sight, smell, taste, touch and focuses your attention to the act of chewing, how it makes you feel, & listening to your body (true hunger or emotional reaction).
This helps you maintain a healthy weight by avoiding binge eating, food cravings, & faulty eating habits. Plus, we make healthier food choices & are better able to appreciate the food we work so hard for.
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What you can do:
- Don’t multitask. Just eat when you’re eating.
- Notice the aroma, look, the texture of what’s on your plate.
- Relish every bite noting the taste, sound & how it feels in your mouth.
- Take small bites, eat slowly, & chew thoroughly.
- Eat only until you feel hungry & not just to finish the plate.
- Smaller plate sizes filled just enough is a good way to not waste food. You can always take second helpings if you still feel hungry.
- Don’t skip meals so that you come to the table hungry but not ravenous.
- Try keeping constant mealtimes every day.
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“Mindful eating is about awareness. When you eat mindfully, you slow down, pay attention to the food you’re eating, and savor every bite.”
– Susan Albers
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4. Benefits of mindfulness meditation:
Mindfulness meditation can help calm your mind down for better clarity of thoughts, better emotional regulation, improved decision making, reduced stress, & a better sense of connection with your inner true self.
Research has shown it to lower blood pressure, heart rate, & improve our immune function. Meditation has been shown to boost the functioning of let hippocampus, a part of the brain responsible for memory & learning (Hölzel, Carmody, Vangel, Congleton, Yerramsetti, Gard, & Lazar, 2011).
But the key here is making it a part of your routine. Even if you can barely take 10 minutes a day for yourself, do it. Focus all your attention & senses on one thing without worrying about what happened, what’s going on, or what to do next. But do it regularly.
You’ll be able to feel the change. Results will keep you motivated to be regular & schedule more time when you feel the need. This will bring even more visible results. It’s a cycle that just keeps on getting better.
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What you can do:
- Get clear on why you want to start mindfulness meditation.
- Schedule 10-15 minutes of your waking hours when you can sit, stand or lie down eyes shut comfortably & safely without disturbance.
- Focus on the flow of your breath as it enters, moves around, & leaves your body.
- Notice how your chest & stomach move with the flow of breath.
- Don’t fight the thoughts moving around your head. Let them come & go.
- If you find yourself ruminating or exploring further one of the thoughts, gently bring your focus back to the mechanics of breathing.
- Before coming out of this calm state, focus on your body’s position. Then open your eyes slowly & note the space around you.
- Now, you’re ready to resume your day.
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“Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already.”
– Pema Chödrön
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5. Health benefits of mindfulness:
Scientific studies trying to collect evidence on how does mindfulness affects the body, have found long-term meditation to boost a specific part of the brain connected to heart & respiratory functions in our body.
Mindfulness calms our brain down, lowers blood pressure & heart rate, and by doing this it reduces the harmful effects of stress on our body.
So you get improved energy, less stress on vital organs, better avoidance of stroke, fewer stress headaches, & so much more.
Whether you choose to meditate in the conventional sense or do any of the mindfulness exercises we discussed before, make it a part of your daily routine. It’s absolutely worth the benefits it brings for your overall health.
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What you can do to get health benefits of mindfulness:
- Make a list of the mindfulness techniques that feel doable to you.
- Find out possible time slots that can squeeze in some mindful time.
- Pick & choose a technique from the list that matches your time available, space you would be in, and whatever sounds the simplest at that particular point in time.
- Try to keep at least one of the time slots constant like either along with your morning routine, in the shower, lunch/dinner time, or before bed. This’ll help turn it into an effortless habit more quickly.
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6. Benefits of mindfulness in the workplace:
Stress that costs $300 billion annually to the American industry has been declared as a workplace hazard by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. By reducing the potency & making you equipped to better handle stress, mindfulness can make the workplace a better place for your mental & emotional health.
According to the American Psychological Association, mindfulness can improve job satisfaction, working memory, sustained focus as well as lower emotional exhaustion & job-related stress.
So, basically the benefits of mindfulness are a boost in your performance, keeping you motivated, & improving your quality of life.
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What you can do:
- Take short breaks for quick mindful breathing throughout the day.
- Go on a 5-minute mindful walk if possible.
- Focus on one task before picking up the next.
- Limit pop-ups on your screen to only what’s super-important. This will help you stay focused on the task in hand & finish it with your utmost concentration & best effort.
- Reflect before you react. Consider what other options are there to respond to the situation. Which one would best suit your personality & the outcome you desire. Is there some other way of looking at the thing that’s offending or bothering you?
- Mindful eating at lunch breaks. If that’s not an option, make water breaks a mindful time by focusing on the texture, temperature, taste, movement through your body of the water & every action required to drink it.
- Include a couple of minutes of mindful body scanning sitting at your desk in your routine to get the benefits of mindfulness.
- Take conscious effort not to carry personal stressors to work or work stressors home.
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“The feeling that any task is a nuisance will soon disappear if it is done in mindfulness.”
– Thích Nhất Hạnh
Mindfulness helps us relish the experience of being alive rather than spend our life living a hurried succession of images & partly-felt sensations. It’s like appreciating a glass of well-aged wine rather than going on a drinking binge.
There’s a huge number of benefits of mindfulness & meditation. No matter which one of these appeals to you, give it a try. Mindfulness is something that can gift you a fresh new perspective in life. It’s like looking at a fresh new morning after wiping off the window frost.
So when it comes to mindfulness, which one do you feel works better for you – mindfulness meditation or mindfulness activities? Tell us, what you think in the comments below.
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