You’ve started to feel a little out of control lately due to how busy you’ve been. You’re trying to find a reputable Nashville moving company to help you move into your new home, you started another career, and you’re going back to school. There will always be times in your life when everything seems chaotic, so it’s important that you try and find ways to not let it overwhelm you – mindfulness can help.
That’s why we’re offering a guide on how to start practicing mindfulness to improve your life. Let’s dive in!
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is when you’re completely present and aware of your thoughts, sensations, and emotions in a nonjudgmental and compassionate way. Mindfulness comes in all shapes and sizes including mindfulness meditation, yoga, and focused breathing exercises. However, you can practice mindfulness anytime by simply bringing the present moment to your awareness.
Benefits of Mindfulness
Mindfulness carries with it numerous positive benefits to both your mental and physical health. There’s been extensive research on how mindfulness can impact our bodies and minds, and that’s why it’s often incorporated into therapeutic practices to treat anxiety and depression.
Here are a few other science-backed benefits of mindfulness:
- Reduces feelings and symptoms of anxiety
- Reduces feelings and symptoms of depression
- Lowers blood pressure
- Improves sleep quality
- Decreases physical pain
Start Slowly
Now that you have an idea of what mindfulness is and how it can improve your life, you’re probably excited to get started. However, it’s important to start your journey with mindfulness slowly. The reason you don’t want to rush into practicing mindfulness is that it could cause you to lose sight of the point of it. You’ll hear many mindfulness practitioners say that if you’re meditating or practicing mindfulness to become enlightened, you’re doing it incorrectly. Instead, the entire purpose of mindfulness is to not rush or expect anything. The purpose is to simply “be,” and learning how to do so will take time and practice.
Guided Meditations
If you’re not entirely sure where to begin your journey with mindfulness, that’s completely understandable. After all, you’ve probably spent most of your life not being present, and that’s why you’re here. Fortunately, there are plenty of resources available to help you get started with mindfulness, and guided meditations are a great place to begin. Guided meditations can be found on sites like YouTube or Spotify, and they’re usually free. Guided meditations can help teach you how to be present in an effective way. Once you’ve got a better understanding of what it feels and looks like to be present through guided meditations, you’ll be better equipped to practice on your own.
Practice Each Day
Speaking of practice, you want to incorporate mindfulness into your everyday life. This could be practicing a morning guided mediation, going for a mindfulness walk, or practicing your own focused breathing meditation. If you don’t practice mindfulness each day, it may take longer for you to see the positive benefits that it offers. You can think of it as an exercise. If you want to grow stronger, you have to remain consistent in the gym to see results. The same could be said for mindfulness. The more you practice, the stronger you’ll become.
