5 Tips On How To Practice Mindfulness On The Go

Are you a busy mum? Do you feel overwhelmed with the amount of stuff you have to do each day? Learn how to practice mindfulness and achieve peace of mind even when you have limited time.

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What Is Actually Mindfulness?

Did you know that mindfulness is a technique you can easily learn? It includes making an effort to notice what’s happening in the present moment, especially focusing on your mind and body?

Also, did you know that practising mindfulness is not actually a rocket science and can be easily done by everyone? 

There is a big excitement around mindfulness lately. I guess people started to notice how tedious is day to day life. There is a high number of people on the planet that feel overwhelmed with endless to do lists, overfilled inboxes that are full of rubbish information. Our society has realized that the direction we are heading is so wrong, and some how we need to reinvent the wheel and start focusing on our mind, body and soul.

Benefits Of Mindfulness

Let s start with the benefits of mindfulness, what is actually doing for you or how it can help you with your life. By practicing mindfulness you become more self-aware, you can control yourself and feel calmer and less stressed.

You have the time to observe your thoughts and feelings plus you are more able to respond to them in better way. By practicing mindfulness you can easier cope with difficult or unhelpful thoughts and also be kind towards yourself and others. 

You can have all that if you start working on your mindful approach. I hope I am not going to surprise you when I say that it takes time. It doesn’t come in the package and you need to work hard to master mindfulness. But hey, chin up, it is for your own good and I know you can do it. 

Two Main Types Of Meditation

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The standard way of practicing mindfulness is by meditation – whether it is formal or informal way of meditation.

1. Formal meditation refers to sited, focused meditation or on the move. It can also involved body scanning techniques.
2. Informal type of meditation usually take place during the day, between our daily tasks, chores etc. And that s what I would like to focus on in this post.

This blog post is all about how to practice mindfulness even if you are busy.

5 Tips On How To Practice Mindfulness

So how can you actually practice mindfulness? What do you need to do each day to become more and more mindful? I don’t like talking about myself, but I can tell you the way I have started and it worked for me so it might also work for you. 

Even if you are extremely busy and feel like you don’t have an extra hour to spend on practicing mindfulness each day, there are things that you can practice on the go. Plus you cans tart from very small things that are so obvious but also very forgotten.

For example, one day you focus on your smell sense, you notice and you observe the smells around you and how they make you feel.

Or you try to smile all day long, smiling at things, at straighter, at your family members. You can observe how thoughts come and go in your mind and how that avoids your mood.

By the way, did you ever notice that negative thoughts just appear in your head out of nowhere? And they awake the anger that sits inside you or the anxiety?

The good thing is that we all can learn how to let the thoughts and the feelings go. You can also observe your body, how it reacts to the feelings, whether it makes your heart beats faster, tense your muscles or something else.

But again, you can control that, you can focus on your breathing or stretching your muscles, or trying to calm down so your heart beat slows down. Learn how to listen to your body. 

Studies show that practising mindfulness can benefit to manage depression, some anxiety problems and feelings of stress. 

Lets give you some good activities for mindfulness. you can easily practise whenever and wherever you are:

1. Gratitude – Appreciating The Good. 

Unfortunately it is very easy to forget how many good things are surrounded around us all the time. And I don’t only mean material things, I also mean people, friends, members of our family. Thus, it is important to practice the appreciation of good. You can do it whenever and wherever you are and it can only take a moment.

Exercise:

Name five things that you appreciate in this moment. It can be the smell of a baking cake, the taste of juice, the time that you are currently spending with your family or friends. 

Stop being picky; appreciate everything.

Be grateful for challenges that you faces each day. End of the day, challenges helps you be stronger version of yourself.

Run a Gratitude Journal daily. It doesn’t have to be pages long. It literally can be a few lines. It will help you pay attention to small things that are important but forgotten.

Download Daily Gratitude Journal from my website. It is FREE and printable.

2. Random Act Of Kindness. 

With all the madness and business that we are currently living in, we often forget about others. WE also have tendency to underestimate small things, such a smile at others, say hello, give a small complement.

Exercises:

Do a random act of kindness to a stranger or person you know. Sometimes simple smile or “Good Morning” is enough to make the other person fell happy, appreciated or even needed.

Hold the door for someone that walks behind you, pick up a glove that a lady in front of you dropped. You just need to remember that you should not expect anything in return, just simple one way act of kindness and that will do:)

Let someone cut in front of you in line. Again, like previous examples. It is something small but can turn huge. You can play a part in making someone’s day, giving them a reason to smile or feel appreciated.

Pick up a piece of litter on the street and throw it out. such a small gesture can make you feel much better about yourself.

3. Focus On One Thing. 

Nowadays, many of us think that multitasking is a valuable skill. Well, I wouldn’t argue with that. It has been proven scientifically that focusing on one thing is more beneficial, you give 100% of yourself into the thing, the quality is much better and most importantly, your mind are healthier. 

One Thing

At A Time

Exercise:

When in the meeting, instead of answering emails, focus on the meeting content. Pay attention to how people express themselves, the body language and so on.

4. Do Something Different.

Did you ever notice that when you drive a car or wash up, you don’t even focus on what you are doing? You are on auto-pilot, you have your habits of doing things and you don’t need to think about the next step.

When you try different things, you mind need to focus on doing them.

Exercise:

Go for a dance class, go to a different shop, take a different route to work and you will notice that your mind are actually focusing on the next turn you need to take or the next step in the new dance routine. It is so much fun 🙂

Change your morning routine by shifting things around. Instead of jumping under the shower, you can first have a cup of tea or coffee or spend 5 minutes writing your journal.

5. Focus On What Pushes Your Buttons Today.

We all have good and bad days, at the end of the day we are only human being and we all go through different set of emotions. Try to focus on what is actually pushing your buttons? Is it your child that is too laud?

Or maybe the cashier that works too slow? Or maybe your boss as you feel like he or she is too demanding or too pushy?

No matter what that is just try to observe the things and try to understand why it annoys you or why you can manage the negative emotions?

What do you have to do to control yourself, to calm down or just let it go? Take a piece of paper and note everything down: what pushed your buttons today, why, when, your feelings. 

Recommendations

The above tips are the most powerful in general. However; you can always try different activities to practice mindfulness. Below I have pointed out examples.

Activities:

1. Pay attention to any positive or good things that happened to you today.
2. Avoid news, social media and toxic people at nay cost.
3. Smile often.
4. Focus on how you treat others.
5. Slow down.
6. Create some space for “me time”.
7. Concentrate on present moment ONLY.
8. Avoid mind-wandering.

Practice:

1. Explore your senses: sight, smell, touch, taste, sound.
2. Acknowledge your body, mind and soul.
3. Practice mindful yoga poses: mountain, tree, cow.
4. Go for a mindful walk. Try to focus on each step and each breath.
5. Tune into your body: first right side, then left. Move on to the lower body, then upper. After that, tune into the front of your body, then the back.
6. Concentrate on your body posture.
7. Practice mindful breathing or counting the breath for one minute.
8. Letting go – let go of stress, negative thoughts, bad memories with one breath. Breath in positive energy and breath out the negative one.
9. Be fully present with others. Pay attention to the conversations you have with others (your family, colleagues, children).
10. Implement self-compaction exercises.

Books And Journals

There is an endless number of sources that you can get nowadays. In my case, books and journals are must haves (even when it comes to wellbeing and mindfulness).

Below you can find a few great positions that are worth trying.

Books

Journals

How Using Too Much Technology Affects Your Brain

Mindfulness Articles