Most people are living on autopilot without ever taking notice of what they are doing. They rush through everything and live in a state of haste and stress. Mindful living can empower your life by teaching you to focus on the present moment and make the most of it. In this blog, you will learn about the simple yet transformative ways to achieve mindful living in everyday life.
‘Mindful’ simply means ‘to become aware of’. You often live in your head stressing over the past or worrying about the future without being in the present moment.
Mindful living means living in the present moment with the awareness of your thoughts, actions, feelings, and the world around you. When you bring your attention to the present moment, you find peace and happiness in even the simplest of everyday chores.
Mindfulness makes you aware as well as engaged in each moment. With mindfulness, you focus on the NOW with clarity, appreciating the experiences without judgment.
According to studies, mindfulness activities can help you improve the quality of your life. Mindfulness is the key to a more balanced and harmonious life.
Let’s understand the 7 simple steps that can help you achieve the art of mindful living.
The Art of Mindful Living: 7 Simple Ways to Achieve Mindfulness in Daily Life
“Wherever you are, be there totally.”– Eckhart Tolle
What are the Benefits of Mindful Living?
Embracing mindfulness helps to transform your life on every level. Here are some key advantages of practicing mindfulness.
1. Manage Stress
Mindful living is a powerful way to reduce everyday stresses and improve anxiety and mood swings.
When you are aware of your present moment, you face challenges with greater composure and resilience. Mindfulness helps you to observe your thoughts without judgment leading to less stress, and anxiety, and a greater sense of inner calm.
2. Acknowledging Your Feelings
Mindfulness helps you to become more aware of your emotions. This leads to better observation and understanding of your feelings without being overwhelmed by them. This helps you to build a healthier relationship with yourself and a more balanced emotional life.
3. Increases Your Self-Awareness
When you live mindfully, you become more aware of yourself as you turn your attention inward, building a deeper sense of self-awareness. As you start observing your thoughts, emotions, and sensations intentionally, you get to know your patterns of behavior. This leads to self-understanding, personal development, and growth.
4. Improves Your Sleep Quality
Mindful breathing practices can help you calm your mind and body leading to a relaxed state of mind which improves your sleep.
5. Improves Your Focus and Clarity in Decision-Making
When you live mindfully, it makes you more aware of the pros and cons of a situation helping you to make the right decisions with clarity. It also improves your focus and problem-solving capabilities.
6. Strengthens Your Relationships
Mindfulness helps you to strengthen your relationships. It makes you an active listener, empathetic, compassionate, and non-judgemental individual. This leads to healthier relationships and deeper connections.
7. Increases Your Creativity and Open-mindedness
When you incorporate mindful living, you become open-minded and less judgmental. It also enhances your creativity as you explore new ideas, perspectives, and experiences without being judgmental about them
8. Improves Your Overall Sense of Well-being
Mindfulness improves the overall sense of your well-being. It impacts the various aspects of your life – physical, emotional, and mental. Mindful living allows you to enjoy each moment, leading to a more fulfilling and satisfactory life.
What are the Principles of Mindful Living?
As you step into the lifestyle of mindful living, there are some key principles you must adhere to:
1. Being aware of the present moment
Mindfulness needs you to direct your attention to the current moment. It makes you fully experience the emotions, thoughts, and sensations and acknowledge all that unfolds in the present.
2. Accepting without judgment
Mindful living requires you to accept your thoughts and feelings without any judgment of good or bad. You observe everything with a neutral and compassionate mindset.
3. Intentional Observation
Mindfulness involves intentional observation of your thoughts and emotions to get a better understanding of yourself.
4. Cultivating Stillness
Mindfulness requires you to cultivate stillness to observe the flow of your internal thoughts without being swept away by them.
5. Mindful Breathing
Your awareness of your breath is central to mindful living. You bring your attention to how you’re breathing. This keeps you calm and composed and makes you aware of your breathing pattern moment by moment.
How to Practice Mindful Living in 7 Simple Ways?
Mindfulness and mindful living don’t give you a set of rules to follow. It is about crafting a tailored approach to a mindful lifestyle that suits your personal preferences and needs. By making you more aware of your present moments, it brings balance and peace into your life.
Let’s delve into 7 simple ways to achieve mindful living and train yourself to be more mindful in everyday life.
1. Mindful Morning and Night Rituals
Mindful morning and night rituals play an important role in your overall well-being.
Whenever you wake up, do not jump right out of bed. Take a moment to relax and take a deep breath. Focus on your breathing pattern for a few minutes.
Before going into your daily routine, take a moment to express gratitude for the new day and appreciate the simple blessings of your life.
You can also practice some self-reflection at the end of the day to align with your mindful living.
Before sleeping, you can do a simple body scan meditation to release any tension and bring awareness to different parts of your body. This will help relax your body and prepare it for sleep.
2. Mindful Movement and Exercise
You can bring mindfulness to your daily movements. Be fully present in activities like yoga, a simple walk, or a workout.
While doing yoga or exercise, notice your body movements, sensations, and how your breath changes.
Whenever you go for a walk, pay attention to the ground underneath, and notice the greenery, the sky, the colors around, the sounds, the scents, and the flowers. Notice the minimal “nothings” around you, and relish the nature that keeps you alive.
Being a remote worker who works in front of a laptop mostly, I try to have a mindful walk in nature and enjoy every bit of it.
3. Mindful Use of Technology
Technology is your biggest supporter as well as a distractor in this modern digital age. If you do not control how much you use it, it will control you.
You need to set boundaries and establish specific times for engaging with technology. You can check your social media, news, or emails in that set time frame only.
You need to disengage from your devices to declutter your mind. You must plan your detox breaks. You can either go out, enjoy your hobby or simply be fully present in the moment.
You can make the most of your devices by using mindfulness apps, easy meditations, or journal prompts that can help you in your journey of mindful living.
4. Mindful Conversations with Others
To have mindful conversations and build deeper relationships, you need to practice being an active listener. You need to refrain from speaking unless the other person has completed their sentence.
Try to be fully present and understand their words completely without judgment. Give your undivided attention to that person and put away all the distractions, especially your phone.
You need to take a moment to collect your thoughts before responding. Choose the right words to respond that show your presence and intention to understand and reply accordingly.
I appreciate people who genuinely listen to me without using their phones or giving in to distractions. I do the same for them and offer respect by listening to understand rather than just responding out of formality.
5. Mindful Routine Tasks
You can incorporate mindfulness in your daily activities by choosing the things you do daily and setting the intention to do them with awareness.
You can focus on one task at a time rather than multitasking. Choose to work on one task with full intention and attention.
The tasks can be as simple as making your bed, taking a shower, preparing your food, or washing your clothes and dishes. The key is to to pay attention to your thoughts, the motion of your hands, the texture, or smell, and all the sensory experiences involved in it.
You can engage yourself in hobbies that give you joy and make you present in the moment. It can be singing, dancing, doodling, gardening, painting, or anything you like.
6. Mindful Eating
Set separate time for your meals away from all sorts of distractions and gadgets.
Chew each bite slowly and do not rush. Engage your senses and give in to the flavor, texture, color, shape, and aroma of your food. Be present in the moment and enjoy it fully.
This will not only help the food to nourish your body properly but also improve your eating habits and build a better connection with food. If you start eating mindfully, it will enhance your eating experience.
7. Mindful Breathing and Meditation
You can practice deep, intentional breathing to center yourself whenever you feel overwhelmed or stressed. This pause can help your mind and body to calm down and bring awareness back to the moment.
Mindful breathing with meditation is a powerful combination to reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and even pain.
You can set aside dedicated time and start with guided meditations of short duration. You can also choose to simply sit in quiet moments and focus on your breath to be present.
Here’s how you can use your phone addiction to become more mindful. Whenever you are going to check your phone, inhale your breaths deeply and exhale slowly. You can do the same while putting down your phone too and tune in to your breath. As you use your phone multiple times in a day, you can include this practice easily.
Conclusion
Mindful living can seem impossible to you initially as you have distractions all around you in the form of technology. The key is to start small and be patient with yourself.
Mindfulness helps you to experience the richness of life. You must slowly introduce mindfulness in different areas of your life to live a more fulfilling and meaningful life.
Mindful living is not a destination but a journey. You can try to find those little moments of mindfulness and peace in your daily chaos. Each intentional act you perform brings you closer to a more harmonious life that you will always look back to smile.
So, go ahead and incorporate some of these mindful practices into your daily routine and witness the magic of mindful living.
