Mindfulness Living & Its Effects On Life
Finding a way to balance yourself in a world that is hurtling constant balls of stress and anxiety at you can be challenging. There are many methods to do this, but maybe one of the best is to build a wellness journey that includes mindfulness living. The effects that a simple mindfulness exercise integrated into your everyday life can bring with it are immense.
“Nothing is worth more than this day. You cannot relive yesterday. Tomorrow is still beyond your reach.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
This statement alone can show you how many people feel that mindfulness living affects their lives. From a reduction in stress and anxiety to a better mind-body connection, mindfulness brings about a lot of benefits that will have definite effects on your life.
When you're looking to add in a new routine, finding one that helps elevate your mindfulness is a good idea. So in this article, we will look at what utilizing mindfulness can bring to your life, as well as a few ideas of activities and tips that might help you make this more consistent.
What is Mindfulness Living?
Mindfulness living is, at its basic definition, an idea that someone can live in the present and be in alignment with both the internal energies as well as the ones around them. Mindfulness living encompasses being aware of everything around you through the use of your senses. Most individuals utilize mindfulness, feeling even the slightest wind on their skin and acknowledging it, but there is so much more that you can do with it to find a way to stay present in your life.
Mindfulness living focuses on the present and not living in the past because there's nothing you can do about that. Also, many practitioners of this type of life skills are able to notice thoughts and work through them more efficiently. Mindfulness living as we've just stated is basically the ability to utilize your own thoughts and senses to cope with the hectic world we live in, thereby leading to a happier and healthier life.
Effects on Your Life: Benefits of Mindful Living
That being said, that is a basic definition and there is so much more when it comes to benefits and that's why mindfulness living is such a wonderful tool to have in your arsenal. It is a lifestyle that will allow you to be healthier. But first, you have to understand the effects it has on your life, so here are a few of the biggest:
Stress Reduction
So most of us look at stress as being a bad thing, it's not necessarily. Our body has certain systems put into it to protect us from danger. These stress responses in the past are what kept us from being eaten by predators.
You would think that that means that in this modern world, those stress responses are unnecessary. So for the most part, some of them can still be useful. However, as useful as they are, they can also be quite dangerous to our health.
These stress responses send out certain types of hormones that create unwanted responses. Mindfulness living can help you be able to differentiate between a situation where the stressors are necessary and one where our body only thinks they're necessary. By being able to do this, you will be able to have a better handle on difficult situations.
Decreased Anxiety
Anxiety is something that many people deal with on a daily basis and something that can disrupt one's life very easily. By utilizing the techniques within mindfulness living, one is able to decrease some of these symptoms, such as overactive thoughts. This is easily done by the focus of breathwork that is used in many mindfulness practices.
Better Relationships
Humans are social animals, even still there are several members of the global community that prefer to be on their own. For the most part, humans need interaction with other people. This doesn't have to be a huge amount of people, but there is something about interaction with other individuals that we crave.
If you are riddled with stress and dealing with a ton of other things, you may find that these relationships are not as sound as you might like. By utilizing skills and philosophies of mindfulness living, you can affect your life greatly in the arena of interpersonal relationships.
Perhaps the ability to form better relationships and make relationships you currently have better comes from the idea that mindfulness living focuses on the removal of judgment and the ability to see situations from a different perspective. By being able to do this there'll be fewer friction and arguments with other people and naturally, you will have better relationships.
Mind-Body Connection
One of the most important relationships you have in your life is the relationship between your mind and your body. Oftentimes, when something is ailing us, we automatically look to our body to find out what is going on. But this may be a mistake because by looking at our minds, it may well be the catalyst for the issues within the body.
That means embracing the idea that our minds are connected with the way our bodies feel may leave us more wholly healthy than focusing on one or the other. Taking time to feel everybody's reaction to it allows us to have a better understanding of ourselves and our bodies.
This in turn would assist us to identify when things are not quite right. It could potentially lead to a better and healthier life.
Teaches Us Empathy
A lot of the time, conflict comes from the inability of an individual to understand the other person's point of view. Mindfulness living though brings with it the ability to remove judgments that have been pre-logged in our brains.
By removing judgment about other people as well, we might find we live a happier and less stressful life. This means you're better able to understand and will be able to listen to them on a more heightened level.
Improves Memory
Memory plays a big part in our everyday life. You have to remember passwords, addresses, and a wealth of other information, and if your memory is not working properly you may find yourself at a loss quite frequently throughout the day. Mindful living though can help you be more attentive so that you can store those memories easier.
This is done by the attentiveness of the philosophies of mindfulness living. Mindfulness teaches you to take in every aspect and feel everything you're feeling, which also means that you're taking in all the information as well. When your brain and your body are connected, and you are happy and healthy, you may find that remembering these things is far easier.
Mindfulness Practices to Include in Your Daily Life
So now that you understand the effects on your life that come with developing a mindfulness living practice, you may be wondering what you can do to include it in your daily life. We highly suggest you include it in your life on a weekly and monthly basis, but daily as well is important because of habit building.
"Wherever you are, be there totally"
Eckhart Tolle
The more often you are executing mindfulness practices, the more your mindfulness living lifestyle will be impactful on your life. This means the more you practice, the more it will positively affect your life. So here are a few practices that you can include in your daily life that may well show a huge effect on your, your health, and your life in general:
Gratitude
It might seem strange to put gratitude in the mindfulness practice column. But oftentimes our brains naturally go towards the negative aspect of everything as one of our protection systems that have been built into our DNA. So focusing on what is positive in our lives can therefore bring positivity into our lives.
It is a gratitude circle that happens and once you begin expressing your gratitude you'll see that more and more good things come your way. It also allows you to stay in the moment as opposed to thinking about the past or the future.
Focusing on what you're grateful for today, every day, can have a huge impact on your life. This can be done by gratitude journaling or simply doing affirmations and talking about what you're grateful for in your life.
Body Scan
There are functions within your body that just naturally happen. Many people go through their day without even noticing things like their heart beating or their breath. This leaves them unable when things aren't working properly to deal with the stress.
That means taking a bit of time to do a body scan which is checking in with every aspect of your body can be very beneficial. By noticing where your tension is lying, any aches or pains or how you're feeling, you can focus on them and find ways to relieve the issue.
Use Your Senses
One of the easiest mindfulness practices that you can incorporate into your daily life is really paying attention to your five senses. By taking a moment every now and then to stop and observe everything around you and how your body interacts with it, you will become more in tune and outside of you.
This means taking a moment to feel how the air feels on your skin, the smells that surround you, how things taste, what you see around you, and the noises that you can hear. Doing this will allow you to stay in the present moment and your body and its interaction with the world around you.
Breathwork
Breath is the key tenant of any type of mindfulness living practice. By focusing on your breath, you are paying attention to the very moment you are in. Breathing is one of those systems in our body that is automated, but by bringing awareness to it, you can really change your mindset and your overall health.
Also by working on your breath you are going to be able to bring in more clean oxygen which will make your body and brain function better. All this combined is a great activity to include. Plus it is one that can be done anywhere whether you're at work, at home, or out and about.
Journaling
Journaling is a great mindfulness activity to help one get those thoughts in our minds out and onto paper. By doing this, you're giving yourself time to really think about the thoughts and acknowledge them and move on from them.
This is a great way to include gratitude in your daily life. It's at this time you can actually combine both journaling and the gratitude we talked about above into one mindfulness activity that can help bring great impact into your life.
Active Listening
Oftentimes, arguments are caused by misunderstandings between you and another individual. This is because so often we don't actively listen, we listen to answer. Instead of really taking in everything they say and analyzing it from a non-judgmental view, we listen so that we can react and interrupt.
Taking the time to listen to what someone says before answering can be a great way to relieve some of that stress and anxiety. Plus, it will mean that you are fully grasping what they're saying, and this will create better relationships in the long run.
Mindfulness Practices Tips
Now that you have a few ideas of what kind of activities you can include in your mindfulness living to have better and bigger effects on your life, you may be wondering how you can make these a consistent habit. Forming habits can be quite hard, especially when you're not used to slowing down like most mindfulness practices require you to.
Also, it might be challenging to incorporate it into your life. You may not be sure where exactly to incorporate it. So below we're going to give you a few ideas that should be able to help you with your mindfulness living journey:
Morning Routine
Having a morning ritual that is consistent and focused on mindfulness practices can set your day up for a wonderful day. Taking a few minutes every morning to really check in with your body and mind will have a huge effect on your activities throughout the day.
This may be a good time to journal, as oftentimes in the morning it is quieter and that will allow you more time to really dive deep into your emotions and thoughts. It also might be a great idea to do your yoga or stretches in the morning, as this will limber your body up and prepare you for the day.
Breathing is Key
Of all the techniques you want to focus on, breathing is key. So taking the time to really incorporate breathing into everything you do can be a great way to build that skill into your vocabulary.
This means that even doing the minutest things, such as doing the laundry or washing dishes, it might be a good idea to practice your breathing techniques and focus on your senses. Doing it in everyday activities like this will ensure that you are comfortable doing it in the actual mindfulness practices you incorporate into your schedule.
You Have Five
Most people focus on a few of their senses, but when you're doing anything, you should try to incorporate all of them. This means that, just like with the breathing we discussed above, when you're doing even your everyday chores around the house, really paying attention to the five senses and how you feel while you're doing it may make it easier to incorporate this into other aspects of your life.
Intimacy
You can practice mindfulness in any activity. One of the activities that many people neglect is when you are being intimate with your partner. This may well be one of the best places to be more mindful as it's going to allow you to be more in tune with their wants and needs and be able to have a better mutual experience.
We suggest that when you're looking at intimacy and mindfulness together, you pay attention to the five senses, just like with everything else. Make sure you're watching their body, how they're expressing themselves, listening to them. By doing this, you're going to be able to really meet their needs.
Be Patient
Patience is a virtue for a reason. Mindfulness is not a rapid-paced activity and lifestyle change that you can grasp in a single moment. It will take time, and you will have to practice being patient.
That's why we suggest even when you're standing in line at the doctor's office or waiting at a traffic light that you hone in on the basic core principles of mindfulness living. If you do this, you'll see a lot of effects when it comes to dealing with stressful situations and difficult individuals. Patience is part of mindfulness practice.
Schedule
Most of us rush around from day today trying to fit everything into a short 24-hour period. So trying to incorporate any type of lifestyle change can be challenging. That's why if you're going to begin moving towards mindfulness living because of the major effects it will have on your life, you need to plan and schedule these activities into your life.
Final Thoughts
So you see, there are a lot of effects that incorporating mindfulness activities and building a mindfulness living lifestyle can bring to you. By diving deep into calming your mind and becoming balanced with your inner world as well as the outer, you will find that you are well on your way to a happier and healthier life.
