It's not easy, but with the right practice and exercises, it can be done.
One exercise that I have been using that has been showing good results is mindful breathing.
Mindful breathing is just that, you are breathing mindfully. While you breathe, just follow the breath in and out, focusing on the sensation of breathing.
You can shift the focus to different areas, such as the air coming in and going out of your nostrils, focusing on the temperature of the air, if it's colder coming in and hotter going out.
You can focus on the smells, on the length of each breath, the noise your breathing makes, and on where the breath goes, how it inflates your chest and abdomen, and how breathing out deflates it.
You don't have to do this all day, but it's just as easy as remembering that you are breathing, and to start focusing on an aspect of that process. Eventually, this will become a sort of second nature, and you will find yourself doing it without telling yourself to, it will just happen.
Apply this same technique to other activities in your daily life, and you will start to notice that you are actually more mindful in your everyday life.
Almost any activity can be a mindfulness activity, it just depends on how you perform the activity.
You can exercise and be mindful by focusing on the muscles that are being activated as you lift the weight and lower it. Really focusing on the feeling of the muscle, on how it contracts, paying attention to how heavy the weight feels, and to any other sensations you experience while exercising.
You can be mindful while walking also. Focus on your steps, on how it feels when your heel touches the ground. Try to focus on how you are stepping, what you are stepping on, the speed at which you are walking, the way your whole body moves with each step.
Really, almost any activity can be done mindfully. Even typing on a keyboard can be done mindfully by focusing and directing your attention to how it feels when your fingers hit the keys as you type.
Breath meditation may refer to the practice of following your breath during meditation.
Many types of meditations focus on following your breath as a way of focusing your mind, and eventually quieting it.
In guided meditations, the guide will instruct you to follow your breath in different ways. They can instruct you to follow the breath as it enters your nose and goes to your lungs, to pay attention to the sensation of your chest or your stomach rising. To pay attention to the temperature of the breath as it enters and exists your nose.
Following and focusing on your breath during meditation, and during other mindfulness activities, is a great way to focus your mind and to allow it to relax.
Mindful breathing is just one way of learning and practicing mindfulness. It helps you be more mindful by allowing you to better focus your mind on a single thing, such as the path of your breath as you inhale and exhale.
It can help with disconnecting from distractions and focusing your mind better, which can be a great source of relief from stress and anxiety.
It's also a very easy technique to perform, it may take some getting used to in the beginning, but once you get it, it really is one of the simplest and best way to refocus yourself in any situation.
I was thinking about my life, and how I got to where I am right, for better and for worse.
I thought about if where I am now is where I wanted my self to be when I thought about this 5 years ago.
It's a difficult question to answer, really. Though I may not be living the life I always wanted, parts of who I am are due to the life that I did live, and at least some of these parts - I like.
Or course, I can't know who I would have been if I had lived the life I wanted, maybe I would have loved all of me, maybe not.
So it's sort of bittersweet in a way. The main thing is to look ahead and be excited for what the future may hold, because it can hold anything.
It's the ability to be in the here and the now, and to not focus on past events or future possibles, things which cause stress, anxiety, and often depression.
I don't think you should be emotionless. I think that, in a way, you shouldn't be anything, you should just be there in that moment.
By that, I mean, you should just let what ever emotion that comes up be, and just watch it and understand it. Same as thoughts, you shouldn't be fighting your thoughts during meditation, you should just be watching them, not trying to alter them or control them, just letting them be until they eventually drift off.
I don't think that anyone can tell you what meditation is right for you. It's sort of like someone telling you what your favorite food is. Without knowing you, they couldn't really tell you this unless it's a guess.
You know yourself best. You would know, or be able to find out, which type of meditation is best for you.
The best way to do this is to just try out a few different types, and to see which one feels best for you.
I think the most important thing, at least for beginners, is to find one that you can actually do on a daily basis or at least consistently, otherwise, if you are not consistent with your meditation practice, you may end up not really doing it enough to actually see the benefits. Both not having a consistent meditation practice and not seeing the results could just lead you to not meditating at all eventually.
I try to be calm and patient with people. You never know where the other person is coming from and what hardships they have in life, so I always try to keep this in mind when speaking with others or confronting others. Especially in situations where the conversation can lead to arguments and to more negative directions.
I believe that being more understanding, and trying to listen to others rather than to just respond and react can lead to a better world if everyone were more mindful of this. People would understand each other better.
One is for them to be able to actually understand me, and I them.
I have been in relationships in the past where I constantly heard "I don't understand you..".
This was said to me because of my thoughts, my actions, decisions, and generally the words I chose to say and the way I chose to say them.
Talking with other people though was much easier, they understood me, and even if they didn't agree with me, they were still able to understand my point and where I was coming from.
Another value is the ability to understand when mistakes were made and to admit when we are wrong.
Rather than just arguing and being stubborn about mistakes that were made, I appreciate the ability that people have to admit when they are wrong.
I know this isn't always easy, its not easy for me either, but even working trying to improve that is important to me.
Which brings me to the next value - improvement.
I absolutely love it when people try to improve themselves. Not because I necessarily think they need to change or improve themselves, but because it shows a certain humility about a person who is willing and able to accept that some things may need to be improved about themselves.
Its when people don't try to change things or improve things that, at least I believe, life gets a little bit stale.
