Living mindfully can bring multiple benefits to our lives and can help us to clear our minds, focusing on what really matters. However, mindful living can be difficult as it requires us to focus on the present. This means leaving things in the past that no longer exist and not getting hung up on the future. Living this way ensures that you can have full control over your thoughts, feelings, and actions.
But how can you achieve and unlock this way of living? This guide can aid you in integrating mindful living into your daily life to live a clearer and more fulfilling life.
What is mindful living and mindfulness?
Mindful living and mindfulness are all about living with awareness in the present moment. This focuses on what’s happening in the very moment without judgment or the need to change anything. It requires you to take care of your words, feelings, and actions to live a good life. Living this way strives to not let any moment pass you by or avoid living in your head. It promotes being a good person and practicing virtue.
The things that mindful living and mindfulness are:
- Friendly and kind
- Curious
- Vital for mental health
- Encouraging working with your body and mind.
The things that mindful living and mindfulness aren’t:
- Religious
- A blank mind
- Being passive
- Avoiding any thoughts
- An escape from reality.
The benefits of mindful living
Introducing mindful living and mindfulness daily can have many mental and physical benefits. These are:
- Improves heart health
- Reduces chronic pain
- Improves quality of sleep
- Improves attention, focus, and memory
- Increases compassion and empathy
- Boosts serotonin levels.
How to be more mindful
There are many simple ways to be more mindful daily to enhance your life and enjoy the moment. Below are just some of the ways you can begin living mindfully.
Cook more
By eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day you have three opportunities to begin practicing mindful living. Cooking regularly is a great mindfulness activity as you can be present in the moment and think about the choices you are making when it comes to food. With hectic lifestyles, families to feed, and picky eaters, cooking every day can be difficult. Many times, it’s easier to serve processed food from the oven or microwave, or even grab a takeaway.
However, you can make easy and quick healthier meals every day that allow you to take time out of your busy life to be present. If you feel yourself resisting, allow yourself to feel it and take notice. Remind yourself to be aware of what you’re fuelling your body with to encourage cooking nourishing and healthy meals.
Practice mindful eating
Just like cooking, eating can be mindful too. Instead of eating quickly while watching TV, try to slow it down and sit with your family away from technology. Give your full attention to every sense when eating. Take in the flavor, smell, and how it makes you feel to appreciate the moment. Between bites, try to engage with your loved ones to truly live in the moment at mealtimes.
Listen to others
Listening to others is crucial when living mindfully. Actively listening to others allows you to be in the present moment, as well as allowing you to be more considerate of how people are feeling. It can be easy to think you are listening, but actually, you’re in your own thoughts and not hearing a word. Try to clear your mind of thoughts and don’t overthink how to respond. Sometimes, people don’t need a solution they just need someone to listen.
Take note of what you consume
The content that you consume daily can shape the way you view the world. It’s easy to come home from work and binge-watch TV, or a movie, or endlessly scroll social media. Coming across negative content through these channels is easy and can reflect how you live your life. Try finding positive content to watch before going to sleep. This allows you to be more compassionate, kind, and mindful of your actions and words. If needed, you can have a social media detox to take a break from negativity.
Be mindful of others
Being mindful of others is the key to practicing mindful living. This is all about striving to be kind and non-judgmental to loved ones and others. No matter how you are feeling toward someone, treat them with kindness and spread positivity within the world. Try to show appreciation more for the people in your life. This involves giving praise to others and celebrating their goals. It can be easy to get jealous or wrapped up in a competition, but remember life isn’t a competition and other people’s achievements aren’t affecting yours. Don’t compare yourself to others and celebrate them.
Within this, you should also start to be mindful of those less fortunate and try to help them. Take in the tragedies in the world and those struggling and be kind toward them. Try to donate to charity more, such as paying toward a Gaza appeal, and help those in need that you come across daily, like helping the elderly with their shopping.
Notice how you communicate
In stressful situations or conflicts, you can easily communicate negatively and become quite nasty. Think about a situation where you were angry or stressed and reflect on how you communicated back to someone. To be more mindful, you need to recognize how you react to negative situations and actively change this. Pause in a situation and take time to communicate positively. Respond by saying what needs to be said while being aware of how you come across to others.
Pause and reflect
Pausing and reflecting throughout your day gives you time to consider how you are spending your time. This allows you to find ways to use your time in the best way possible. Think about if you are living in the moment and if not, how you can change this. When pausing and reflecting, it’s also best to think about how you have communicated with others. If you have hurt someone with your words or actions, apologize to them and focus on changing your reactions.
After reflecting, to be fully mindful, you should accept things as they are and understand that you can’t always control what happens to you, you can only change how to react to it.
Try these tips to integrate mindful living into your daily life. Doing this allows you to have more control over your thoughts, feelings, and actions while benefiting from a more positive way of life. Remember, mindful living won’t happen overnight, and it takes time to master mindfulness every day. Take small steps and changes and don’t be too harsh on yourself if you do something wrong.