Practical Ways to Practice Mindfulness

1. Engage with Nature: Spend time outdoors and take a moment to connect with your surroundings. Notice the sounds, smells, and sights around you. This can be as simple as sitting in a garden, walking through a park, or standing on a balcony to watch the sky.

2. Unplug from Devices: Take a break from electronic devices for 30 minutes. During this time, observe any impulses to check your phone, computer, or TV. Pay attention to your thoughts and emotions. Do you feel restless, relieved, or calm? Use this time to engage in activities like painting, reading, or simply having a conversation with someone nearby.

3. Practice Breathing Exercises: Take a few minutes to focus on your breath. Inhale deeply through your nose, hold for a moment, and exhale slowly through your mouth. This simple exercise can help ground you and bring a sense of calm. (Try this one out!)

4. Be Present in Daily Activities: Whether it’s eating a meal, washing dishes, or folding laundry, bring your full attention to the task. Notice the textures, smells, and movements involved, allowing yourself to be fully immersed in the experience. (Try this exercise to relax in moments of anxiety.)

Supporting Yourself and Others

Managing emotions and supporting one another can be challenging, even in the best of times. This is why it’s so important to take moments to pause and proactively care for our mental and emotional health. Mindfulness is an easy, free, and natural way to enhance your ability to cope with life’s challenges and manage your emotions effectively.

By making mindfulness a regular part of your day, you can build resilience, reduce stress, and create a greater sense of peace and balance in your life. Whether you’re new to mindfulness or looking to deepen your practice, start small and find activities that resonate with you. Remember, mindfulness isn’t about doing it perfectly—it’s about showing up for yourself, moment by moment.

Read about how Jess found her way into mindfulness and how this can contribute to enhance our wellbeing.

COVID-19 restrictions, as we all know and has been constantly established, have brought about extreme and exceptional circumstances, which naturally come with new challenges. There are many strategies and activities which can be done to make this time easier, and this has been outlined in other blog entries on this site. On this article however, we will be going over mindfulness, and how this can contribute to enhance our wellbeing. Mindfulness is the human ability to be fully present, being aware of where we are and what we are doing. Mindfulness is something we all naturally have, however it's more available to us the more we practice on a daily basis. Being mindful involves bringing awareness to what you are directly experiencing through your senses or to your state of mind through thoughts and emotions. Mindfulness is available to us everywhere, whether it is through meditation and body scans, or through mindful moments such as taking time to pause and breathe when the phone rings instead of rushing to answer it. 

Mindfulness can be an effective method to enhance wellbeing generally, and so in circumstances such as lockdown, when we are confined to the few walls in our homes and limited people, our thoughts and everyday worries can become more intense through having more time to worry about such things. Mindfulness involves being aware of your thoughts, feelings and body sensations as you experience them. So this can help one notice when there is tension building and when you may need to take a break, whether it be from work or social tension in the house. Mindfulness is great for helping reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression. From my own experience in lockdown, I have found there are days where I feel particularly overwhelmed, and this usually derives from myself overthinking many things, bringing down my mood significantly. So I decided to start practicing mindfulness; going for a walk, and standing on a hill that I normally visit, and to just stand and look at the view, feel the wind, hear the birds and focus on my breathing. This helps completely clear and reenergise my head and spirit. After this I feel considerably lighter and my mood becomes more positive.

Another way to practice mindfulness is to unplug, taking for instance 30 minutes away from electronic devices - phone, computer or television. In this time, notice any impulses you may have to check these devices, notice any thoughts and sensations that come up and any emotional reactions. Do you feel irritated, relieved or sad? In this time, you can become an observer of your experience. I struggled to get used to it initially as I am connected to my mobile for much of the day. However, getting past the initial discomfort, I found it very refreshing, and enjoyable being present and participating in activities such as painting and talking more with the people around me. Managing our emotions and supporting one another can be challenging in the best of times, this is why now more than ever, we need to be doing the best we can, to take moments to pause, and be proactive in looking after ourselves and others. Mindfulness is an easy, free, natural way to boost your anxiety coping skills, and can help with our ability to manage our emotions. During COVID-19 restrictions, where we may have extra time on our hands, we can take the opportunity to begin or strengthen our mindfulness practice.

References and Resources

https://www.mindful.org/meditation/mindfulness-getting-started/ 

https://www.healthnavigator.org.nz/healthy-living/m/mindfulness/ 

https://adaa.org/learn-from-us/from-the-experts/blog-posts/consumer/mindfulness-exercises-use-during-coronavirus 

Calm - App for Mindfulness, Meditation and Sleep

Headspace - App for Mindfulness and Sleep