What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is the process of bringing your awareness and attention to the present moment while acknowledging your thoughts, physical sensations and emotions.
As children, we're in sync with ourselves on an emotional and physical level. We know what we enjoy, dislike, want, and what we don't want. But at a certain age, we learn to focus our attention outside of ourselves. The more we can do and cram into our day, the more productive we feel. That's when we start to function on auto-pilot. We lose the connection we have with our physical world and neglect our inner selves. Disconnecting can lead to issues with memory, suffering from anxiety or depression, irritability because we're out of touch with our needs and our bodies can start to hold onto stress and tension which leads to illness and disease.
Mindfulness exercises help us re-connect with ourselves and our environment. By practicing mindfulness, you become fully present in the moment which leads to clarity and peace. It's not normal for humans to function like robots but we find ourselves falling into that pattern. The following mindfulness exercises can help you break the cycle of wake up, work, sleep, and repeat.
4-7-8 Breathing Exercise
-Find a comfortable position either sitting or lying down and close your eyes.
-Breathe in through your nose for a count of 4.
-Hold your breath for a count of 7.
-Exhale through your mouth for a count of 8.
-Repeat 4x
5 Senses Exercise
Feel: Name 5 things you can feel (ie. shirt on your skin, jewelry on neck, feet on the floor, wind on face)
Hear: Name 4 things you can hear (ie. cars passing, radiator, ocean, dogs barking)
See: Name 3 things you can see (ie. clouds, a co-worker, radiator, trees, cell phone)
Smell: Name 2 things you can smell (food, air, grass, perfume)
Taste: Name 1 thing you can taste (toothpaste, coffee, and yes, even morning breath)
Mindful Eating/Drinking
We pay very little attention to when we're eating and drinking. In fact, we often multi-task while we're consuming food and beverages. We think about our endless to-do list, watch TV, or have whole conversations. Shift your mindset to seeing eating/drinking as a full body sensory experience.
-Pay close attention to how your food smells. (Can you smell the different seasonings? Is there a combination of smells? Are they sweet or savory smells?)
-Look at your food on your plate or in your hand. (How does it appear? Is it placed in sections or mushed together? Is it layered? What colors do you see?)
-Every time you take a bite, consider how the food feels. (Is it soft? Crunchy? Tender? Tough? What kind of consistency does the food have?)
-As you chew, take a mental note of each flavor you experience. (Have you tasted this before or is this your first time? Do the flavors remind you of any memories?)
Perspective
Our days tend to run together because we're all so busy. Sometimes we forget to stop and have perspective on our day as a whole which can lead us to think most days are bad when really, we have a lot of good ones. At the end of your day, take a moment to think about everything you experienced. List 10 positives things about your day.