What is mindfulness?
Simply put, it has to do with focusing and paying sharp attention to all that is happening inside of your mind while being fully present in any given moment. This allows you to accurately assess who and what you are experiencing without allowing your feelings and emotions to cloud your perception. It also allows you to approach every moment without preconceived or pre-formed opinions or judgments. This will help you to be fully present physically, mentally, and emotionally in your life and to experience life for the gift that it truly is — the good, the bad, the happy, the sad, the stress, the fun – all of it, because it’s all an opportunity for learning and growth in your life!
How can mindfulness enhance your life?
For starters, it can help you to improve your concentration, to become more focused, and less stressed because you are more aware of the harmful thoughts, habits, and patterns that have been derailing you. You will also start to notice how much your mind is wandering or thinking thoughts that keep you stuck. This awareness will then allow you to make more thought-out, reasonable decisions because you are now reigning in your thoughts and choosing to be more intentional with what you think and say and do! You will now be making healthier choices with what you eat, what you do with your time, how you listen to your family and friends in a conversation, what you watch on TV, how you process and retain information, who you surround yourself with, what goals your pursue in your life, and so much more!
How can you start to incorporate mindfulness into your life?
First, you will want to do this: “think about what you are thinking about.” Sounds simple, but it’s a learned behavior, and it requires a certain amount of refinement and effort. If your thoughts are negative, worrisome, judgmental, nonproductive and are holding you back from what you are trying to accomplish, you will want to pause and look at what you are feeling and experiencing on the inside. Once you identify what’s going on inside of you, you can then dismantle the worry, fear, anxiety, regrets, etc. simply by asking yourself why you are feeling that, where the truth is in it, and what can you learn from it. In some cases, you may need to ask for forgiveness from someone or you might even need to forgive yourself for something you said or did. The next step is to release those nagging thoughts, hit the mental reset button in your mind, and get your thoughts going in the right direction. You can now choose to think about people, problems, and situations in your life through the lens of positivity, possibilities, and productivity.
The more you do this, the more your brain will get the picture, and it will eventually begin to do it on its own without much help from you. You can practice mindfulness while doing the most mundane tasks and chores on a daily basis – just be sure to be consistent and persistent with this new habit. Before you know it, you will start to experience your daily life in a whole new way! Mindfulness will help you to connect to the world around you and help you to live your life to the fullest without shutting down or trying to escape or just “killing time” to get by. Your relationships and experiences in life will become richer and more meaningful. This will greatly improve your thought life, your health, your relationships, and your career as you make healthier choices and dare to be fully present in every moment, both mentally and physically.