Five Ways to Practise Mindfulness at Home, Today
There are many reasons why mindfulness qualifies as a powerful tool for your everyday self-care practice. For one, it is one of the simplest ways to incorporate self-care that’s been validated by science into your daily life. There's no need to go anywhere specific or to anything in particular. There's no need to learn any new skills. You have at your disposal everything you need to become mindful and reap the benefits of mindfulness in your everyday life. And you can do so with just a few minutes of active practice a day.
Secondly, mindfulness doesn’t just affect the experiential quality of the activity itself, like eating mindfully or walking mindfully. Mindfulness is an experience that affects us universally. Cultivating mindfulness means to become aware and to become conscious: of our body, of our thoughts, of our environment. This effect can move into different areas of our life: our relationships, our work, our health, and even our values.
Mindfulness is something we can easily integrate into our everyday life and schedule. To make your start as smooth and simple as possible, we put together a list of five ways to make mindfulness part of your daily life, so you can start reaping the benefits of mindfulness, today!
Mindful Walking
Mindful walking is a straightforward way to incorporate mindfulness into your everyday life. Walking mindfully is a perfect opportunity to connect to your body on a deeper level, and this connection (similarly to Yoga or Qigong) can be the basis of mindfulness becoming a part of other areas of your life, too.
There is increasing evidence that walking is a powerful form of therapy in itself and can also amplify other forms of therapy. Our bodies were designed to move, and with our increasingly sedentary lifestyles, this can come short. While running and walking are great ways to exercise, walking mindfully is not about reaching a specific goal, like running 5k or getting your 10k steps in. It is about the process itself. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: "Life is a journey, not a destination," which couldn't be more true for mindful walking.
Mindful walking is not about getting somewhere specific or being somewhere specific: You could walk mindfully at home in your living room or in a forest close by, on your way to work, or at the supermarket. Walking mindfully is about focusing your attention entirely on your body, your surroundings, and your sensory experience at this moment.
You can start your practice by choosing a location you feel familiar with so you feel comfortable focusing on the process. Notice how your feet feel on the ground. What sounds can you hear around you? What do you see? Walk mindfully for at least 10 minutes to reap the full benefits of the practice. You can also go on a mindful walk with us in this week’s guided nature walk podcast.
Eating mindfully
One of the easiest and yet most powerful ways of practising mindfulness every day is through mindful eating. Mindful eating is about slowing down, appreciating the food in front of us and its origins, and making space to nourish our bodies. Because we eat daily, eating mindfully can very easily become part of our daily routine without needing to make time especially.
Mindful eating begins the moment you choose your ingredients at the supermarket. Mindful eating is all about appreciating the food with all our senses. Choosing foods that are nutritious and healthy can amplify this experience. Although you can use any food for mindful eating, plant-based dishes and healthy omega-3-fatty fish (if you are a pescetarian) can make it easier to connect to the visual of how the food nourishes our body.
When practising mindful eating, it's best to take at least 10-15 minutes for your meal. Preparing the meal yourself is also a great way to begin the mindful eating process. If you don't have time during the week, you can easily prepare dishes in advance. Although mindful eating can happen in all kinds of contexts, we recommend that you set aside this time to sit down at a table without any devices present. This way, you can fully concentrate on the food in front of you.
Enjoy the food with all your senses: What do you see? What do you smell? What do you taste? Perhaps even, what do you feel?
Taking time for our meal, chewing properly, and avoiding distractions from our devices have also been linked to better weight management. The effect of mindful eating can potentially be much more significant than just a break for your mind and recharging your batteries through mindfulness.
Digital Mindfulness
"The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength," Marcus Aurelius said. A calm, rested, and focused mind is one of the most powerful allies we have in this busy, connected world. Meditation is a great way to get there, but one of the easiest ways to cultivate this daily is through a mindful relationship with our devices.
Because a lot of the buzz that we are exposed to these days comes from our devices, we must create a relationship with our phones, laptops, and tablets that allows us to stay present, balanced, and energised. Because our devices connect us to activities, information, and exploration 24/7, we need to decide when it's time to get offline.
A great start is introducing device-free evenings and mornings, where you refrain from checking your phone for the first and last 15-30 minutes of your day. Both the evening and the morning are critical times for our brain to recover and even problem solve, so making sure this time is well spent is essential. Other ways to foster a mindful relationship with our devices are to turn off notifications and only check our phones at specific intervals or times during the day. The list is endless and very practical. If you want to know more about the subject, check out our recent blog article on Digital Mindfulness. On "The Quiet Living Room" podcast, you can also find an episode dedicated entirely to rituals that support a balanced relationship with our devices.
Meditation
You might be surprised to see this one on the list. "Meditation" and "Mindfulness" are still frequently used synonymously. At first sight, this is not surprising. Both are about awareness, stillness, and becoming present in this moment. Their practice might even feel similar.
The inherent difference lies in the object. While in meditation, you will primarily focus on clearing your mind and concentrate on "no-thing," mindfulness is about paying particular attention to "some-thing." Meditation can be mindful, but mindfulness is not the same as meditation.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, one of the world's most prominent writers on the subject and the creator of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Program, defines mindfulness as "the awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally." Mindfulness, according to Joshua Schultz, "is a quality; meditation is a practice." Meditation is a way of living mindfully, but mindfulness also helps our meditation practice. Long story short: when you meditate, you become more mindful overall, and this is why meditation made the list of everyday mindfulness practices.
Every meditation serves a different purpose and will bring about a different effect on the meditator. You can explore different kinds of meditation styles on our podcast "The Quiet Living Room." Overall, finding the type of meditation that suits you is a journey. The great thing is you don't need long hours of practice. Just a few minutes practised consistently (ideally daily) is the way to go.
Breathing
We separated "Breathing" from "Meditation," although you could argue that breathing mindfully is also a technique that can qualify as a form of meditation. For this list, we want to highlight that breathing mindfully can happen at any moment of the day: in the shower, while making breakfast, in line at the supermarket. Breathing mindfully is a great way to center ourselves and to regulate our energy levels at different times of the day.
Breathing mindfully also has a powerful physiological effect on our bodies. It can help to reduce stress and lower blood pressure and heart rate. Some types of breathing, such as Wim Hof's breathwork, have been shown to boost our immune system, improving sleep quality and our ability to focus.
You can try mindful breathing at this very moment. Just take a few deep breaths into your stomach and focus on how the air travels through your body into your cells. Focus on how your body feels as you breathe in. If you want to raise your energy levels, breathe in for longer. If you want to create a feeling of relaxation, breathe out for longer.
Are you feeling inspired? Ready to give these mindfulness practices a try? Mindfulness may originate from ancient Eastern religious traditions, but its relevance to our modern, urban lives is undeniable. For more inspiration and ideas on how to make mindfulness part of your everyday life, make sure to subscribe to our Newsletter and follow us on @quietsocialclub.
Join us for a Month of Wellbeing
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and we want to use this time to bring you lots of selfcare rituals and practices that you can make your own. If you haven't signed up yet, click below!
