“Mindfulness is about being fully aware of your experiences as they are happening in the present moment. You are aware of your thoughts, emotions, and your body sensations.” Charles A. Francis

Webster’s definition of mindfulness is “a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.”

Mindfulness is a secular form of meditation that has its roots in the teachings of Buddha over 2,500 years ago. The main goal of the practice was to attain freedom from suffering. This is accomplished by developing self-awareness, or mindfulness, because it was your inaccurate views of the world that trigger your negative emotions and harmful actions.

With mindfulness, you can develop an awareness of the true nature of reality. By observing what is happening within your mind, body, and the world around you, you’ll begin to lift the veil of illusion that creates the suffering in your life, states Charles A. Francis, co-founder and director of the Mindfulness Meditation Institute.

4 Simple Mindfulness Practices

Mindfulness is a powerful practice that can help you avoid a lot of unnecessary anxiety and negative thoughts, writes Francis. It will enable you to cope with life’s many challenges and help you find peace and joy. Here are some of the simple tools you can use, according to Francis.

Mindful breathing. At the heart of the mindfulness practice is mindful breathing. Paying close attention to your breath will help you calm your thoughts and emotions. It will keep you from becoming overwhelmed. All you have to do is occasionally stop what you’re doing, and just observe your breath for a few moments. You can count 5-10 breaths, and then return to what you were doing. That’s it.

Mindful walking. This is another simple practice. Unless you have mobility issues, we all do some walking throughout our day. When walking from one place to another, pay close attention to your footsteps, just like you do with your breath in mindful breathing. If the weather is nice, you can go for a mindful walk. Try keeping yourself in the moment by observing your surroundings. Notice the different sights and sounds of nature. Focus on smelling the fresh air and observing all the critters, both large and small.

Your mind affects your body, and your body affects your mind, perhaps more than you realize.

Sitting meditation. Many people have the misconception that meditation is difficulty, and that they need to clear their mind before they can start meditating. That’s not so. Sitting meditation is actually quite simple. All you have to do is sit quietly for a few minutes, and follow your breath as best as you can. When your mind wanders off, and it will, just keep bring it back to your breathing.

If you’re new to meditation, try it for just 5-10 minutes each session. Then increase the duration as you’re able. Remember, you don’t have to do it perfectly. The ideas is to give your mind a break from the constant stimulation, and simply allow it to calm down naturally. And it will.

Writing meditation. This is a practice helps you overcome stubborn habits that are preventing you from being at peace. What you do is take the scripted meditation, which is a set of affirmations, and copy it by hand over and over. This will imprint the affirmations in your subconscious mind, and they will manifest themselves in your life without any conscious effort. And it only takes about 5 minutes a day.

An article in Fast Company, called How the Pope Does Mindfulness, revealed how company executive Drake Baer practices mindfulness. He practices daily “mindfulness” by:

• First, remind yourself why you are grateful as a human being.
• Second, lift your horizon for a moment. Call to mind some crucial personal objective, or your deepest sense of purpose, or the values you stand for.
• Third, mentally review the last few hours and extract some insight that might help in the next few hours. If you were agitated, what was going on inside you? If you were distracted and unproductive, why?

You can use this executive’s short method and practice mindfulness several times a day. It is beneficial to focus on the present.

References:

1. https://time.com/4184938/mindfulness/
2. https://www.catholiccompany.com/magazine/turn-mindfulness-into-god-full-ness-5908
3. https://mindfulnessmeditationinstitute.org/the-mindfulness-meditation-practice/what-is-mindfulness-meditation/
4. https://mindfulnessmeditationinstitute.org/2022/07/14/7-powerful-mindfulness-tips-for-better-coping-with-grief/