What is mindfulness?
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness, or mindfulness practice, is an affordable way to get started in meditation because you just have to focus on what your five senses perceive: sight, touch, smell, hearing and taste. It is very easy to practice and has many benefits, you will see it with the following mindfulness exercises.
GET UP 30 MINUTES BEFORE
GET UP 30 MINUTES BEFORE
When the alarm goes off, stay in bed for 5 minutes consciously thinking about how each part of your body is activated. It starts at the feet and goes to the head. Afterwards, take the opportunity to go out to the balcony or look out the window and pay attention to everything you see. Next, we will begin the rest of the mindfulness exercises of the day.
THE COFFEE OR TEA RITUAL
THE COFFEE OR TEA RITUAL
It's about being mindful of every part of the process of making your coffee or what you drink in the morning. Stop at the desire that enters you just at the moment of making it, at the moment of taking out the ground coffee or the capsule, at the noise of the coffee machine, the comfortable aroma it gives off … Finally, enjoy and savor the cup, sitting in your favorite corner of the sofa. It will be 10 minutes of glory.
CONSCIOUS BREAKFAST
CONSCIOUS BREAKFAST
The same mindfulness practice can continue at breakfast. Leave your mobile phone while you're eating and take advantage of these 10 minutes to focus on the food you're eating, its taste, smell … everything you do: spread the toast, stir the coffee … You will be surprised by this new way of eating breakfast . Here are many healthy breakfast ideas to put into practice.
Mindfulness Bath
Mindfulness Bath
You can transform any shower or bath into a mindfulness moment. The smell of soap, the steam of the water, the sound of the tap, the sensations when rubbing … Taking a shower is an action full of small pleasures of which we recommend you be aware while you breathe slowly and deeply. Oh, and if you want to enjoy the best bathroom of your life, don't miss this article.
Visualize your daily goals
Visualize your daily goals
We do not mean that you make an endless list, but that you think about the 2 or 3 things that you would like to achieve that day: they can be work goals, but also personal and emotional. For example: submit a report, go out on my time and go to the park in the afternoon with my partner and my son.
Walking down the street
Walking down the street
Choose the least noisy path to your destination. Relax your muscles and start walking consciously, feel the steps. Begin to look at everything around you: beautiful buildings, trees, people passing by, smells, the color of the sky … Try not to let negative thoughts enter your mind.
Review of thoughts
Review of thoughts
Don't let the negative thoughts you accumulate be what marks the beginning of your day, thus eliminating the anxiety that accompanies them. Mini exercise: when the toxic thought comes, look up to the left, without moving your head, as if looking up. Surely the thought will have disappeared.
Photo by @spiritualwoman
Write a journal
Write a journal
Choose the time of day you prefer and write even one line a day. Capture how you feel or any thoughts you have had. If you prefer, drawing is also worth it. The important thing is to focus your attention for a few minutes and abstract yourself from the outside.
5 minute order
5 minute order
We have said it many times, an orderly house is a happy house. Chaos calls for mental chaos, that is why it is essential that your environment is orderly and as less saturated as possible with unnecessary objects. Find 5 minutes a day to order the visible areas of your house and also of your work.
Concentration
Concentration
Are you able to focus on something for a long time and disconnect from everything outside? You can start with a very easy activity: painting mandalas. They are very fashionable and it is very easy to find them downloadable on the Internet. The goal is that while you paint, your thoughts flow without stopping.
Photo from @ njoy.this.chance
Digital detox
Digital detox
Don't be scared, we're not going to tell you to throw away your phone. It is simply a matter of disconnecting for a few hours, for example, from dinner until the next morning. Take the opportunity to talk with your family, read, listen to music … It seems somewhat banal, but your mind will appreciate it.
Music time
Music time
If you don't see yourself painting, another good way to work mindfulness is by listening to music in a present way. Music reduces stress, puts you in a good mood, and stimulates creativity. Choose the songs you like the most, make yourself comfortable, listen to the lyrics and feel the melody.
Spend time with your family or friends
Spend time with your family or friends
How many times do we start the day with hardly any interaction with any member of our family? Breakfast, lunch, dinner … any time will be perfect. The goal is to be present and enjoy even 5 minutes of attentive conversation. Television is prohibited!
Review of your day
Review of your day
At the end of the day, ask yourself: was it a satisfactory day? Review all the good that has happened to you, detect what can be improved and think about what you can do the next day to make your day even better. You can briefly write these thoughts down in a notebook.
Before sleep
Before sleep
Lie down on the bed and repeat the first exercise. Begin to breathe rhythmically from the diaphragm and consciously relax all parts of the body, starting with the tips of the feet and ending at the crown. In addition to practicing the here and now, this exercise induces sleep.
Have you heard of mindfulness ? It is the practice of the here and now, of mindfulness, of being present and being aware of what surrounds us. It is not something reserved for Buddhist monks, but more and more people are incorporating small mindfulness routines into their daily lives. With the easy exercises that we propose above, you can start practicing it little by little and enjoy its benefits.
"The true voyage of discovery is not so much about looking for new landscapes as about looking at old ones with new eyes." Jon Kabat-Zinn
This quote from scientist Jon Kabat-Zinn, molecular biologist, researcher and promoter of 'mindfulness' in the West, is revealing. Mindfulness does not seek new experiences outside of your daily life, but encourages you to see with different eyes what is already happening to you.
Benefits of mindfulness
- Reduce stress levels
- Help you sleep better
- Increase creativity
- Improves the ability to concentrate
- Promote your compassion and empathy
"Mindfulness promotes creativity, the observation of beauty, the gaze of the poet, as I say, and what they call the beginner's mind, which is a concept that I love: it involves being able to see, smell, taste, move, like if we did it for the first time. Doing everything with an attitude of discoverer, as if we were in a new place and everything seemed new and incredible ”, explains psychologist Rafael Santandreu.
The problem is that we live with the mental automatic pilot always on. We don't think about what is happening now; we are dedicated to imagining future scenarios (usually negative) that almost never end up happening. And it is not difficult to imagine the consequences this has for our emotional well-being.
All the mindfulness exercises that we explain to you in the gallery can be summarized in this mantra proposed by the psychologist Constanza González: “Just for today I will try to live in the present, I will inhabit my body in this situation, in this conversation, in this meal … . ”.
With that mindfulness repeated in daily acts (although every day we say "just for today"), our perception of reality changes. And our mental software will stop projecting into the future compulsively.
