How to incorporate mindfulness in your day
Mindfulness is something everyone at every life stage can benefit from. It can be done anywhere, anytime by simply paying attention to your five senses.
If you follow me on Instagram (subtle plug to do that now), you would have seen a post I did on how I incorporated a bit of mindfulness during a recent shopping trip to DFO.
It wasn’t until I was training to become a yoga teacher that the penny dropped. I really started to understand how the practice of mindfulness and meditation has such a positive, calming effect on the body’s neural pathways.
Mindfulness is simply present moment awareness – being conscious of what’s around you, what you’re doing, and marinating in it with all your senses, with no judgement, just observing what is.
Meditation on the other hand is a deeper practice, of sitting and observing what Buddhists describe as the ‘monkey mind’. Research says that just 10 minutes of a meditation a day can have significant positive benefits to your life.
I think the two go hand-in-hand, with mindfulness being the gateway to creating a regular meditation practice. But you don’t have to be a yogi to do this. We’re all regular Joes here. And it’s as simple as paying attention to your five senses.
Here’s how you can inject mindfulness in your day by using your senses as prompts:
- Sight – really hone in on how something looks. Notice the colour, the shape, the form, the design.
- Touch – pay attention to the sensation. Notice the objects texture, it’s roughness or smoothness, the sensors it awakens in your body.
- Sound – listen to the noise around you in that moment. Background sounds, what’s loud, what’s soft, what’s the rhythm it makes.
- Smell – what scents or aromas are present. What are the undertones – musky, sweet, strong, pungent.
- Taste – notice the texture and the sensation. Observe what happens when you chew, or swallow, and your body’s response to what you’ve just consumed.
There’s lots of apps that you can download if you’re keen to introduce more mindfulness in your day, such as Calm.
If you’re looking to deep dive into the benefits of meditation and want some guided practice, Dr Elise Bialylew’s Mindfulness in May has just kicked off and it’s not too late to sign up. I’ve done this 30 day challenge before, and think I might join up again!
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Until next time,
Maryanne K
