5 ridiculously simple ways to practise mindfulness and calm your mind
Here are 5 super easy ways to practise mindfulness in your busy life. Since incorporating mindfulness into my daily life, I have found myself more present and grounded which has in turn significantly reduced my stress levels.
As a Mindset and Productivity Coach for perfectionists, I am constantly preaching mindfulness to my clients and I have seen the incredible benefits it brings to their lives.
Clients go from worrying about everything and anything, plagued with extreme perfectionist hang-ups to being able to let go of old habits and conquer their fear of failure.
It’s powerful stuff.
The trick is to start small and do it consistently. It’s not something that you do once a month and call it a day. It is something that becomes part of your life.
Here are 5 simple yet effective ways to practise and reduce your stress.
1. Mindfulness Meditation
Focusing on your breathing in meditation is a foundational mindfulness practice that can be done at any time, anywhere.
All you need to do is find a comfortable seat, close your eyes and pay attention to your breath.
- I recommend that you first bring your attention to the sensation of your breath as it enters and leaves your body.
- Can you follow the journey of your breath as you breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth?
- You may feel the rise and fall of your chest, the sensation of air passing through your nostrils or the movement of your diaphragm.
- Really sink into the feeling and pay attention to every sensation.
When I first started doing mindfulness meditation, I found it ridiculously hard to pay attention because my mind was always wandering to other things going on in my life such as ‘Did I reply to my friend?’, ‘I need to add this task to my to-do list’, or ‘I’m so bored!’.
Then I’d notice that I was distracted and shame myself for having poor concentration.
Don’t do what I did.
Instead, observe your thoughts without judgement, don’t try to control or manipulate them just bring your focus back to your breath each time.
I promise you, things will get easier over time when you practise regularly. Just start with a few minutes each day and gradually increase the duration as you grow in confidence.
2. Mindful Body Scan
The body scan is a great mindfulness practice to do when you feel emotionally dysregulated or you want to get into a calm headspace before bed.
When I tell you… this was a LIFESAVER for me when I struggled with really bad anxiety attacks.
Basically, body scan meditation is a practice of bringing awareness to each part of your body from head to toe. It’s a great way to build a strong mind-body connection and will help you learn where your feelings sit in your body.
Knowing which part of your body you feel certain feelings is an essential part of your healing journey because you will develop a greater self-awareness of your triggers. You’ll eventually start to understand how your body tries to communicate with your mind which will help you approach your body with kindness rather than judgement.
- First, you will need to lie down in a comfortable position and close your eyes
- Take a few moments to focus on your breath and centre yourself in the present moment.
- Focus your attention on your toes and gradually shift your attention upwards scanning each part of your body e.g. toes, feet, ankles, shins, calves, knees, thighs, hips, stomach, back, fingers, hands, forearms, elbows, upper arm, shoulders, neck, chin, cheeks, nose, ears, eyes, forehead, and head
- Take a few moments at each body part to notice the sensations that you feel e.g. temperature, pressure, tingling, tension, discomfort etc…
- Allow yourself to simply observe and acknowledge each sensation without judgement
- Focus on how your breath interacts with each body part and notice the sensations
- After completing the body scan, reflect on the experience and express gratitude to your body
3. Mindful eating
Mindful eating is all about paying full attention to the experience of eating from the moment the food enters your mouth to the moment you swallow.
It is something that I think more of us should incorporate into our lives.
Put your hand up if you spend 10 minutes searching for the perfect YouTube video to watch while you eat your dinner…
I know I do!
It’s something that I am really trying not to do so much because I KNOW the downsides of not being present while eating.
Most of us see eating as a chore so we try to distract ourselves with YouTube and Netflix programmes to make the process a bit more bearable.
However, we’re going about it the wrong way.
Eating is a privilege. What a privilege it is to have food on demand and the ability to nourish our bodies.
We should strive to give food and the process of eating the respect it deserves. Who’s with me?
So here’s the process
- Turn off your TV, laptop or whatever it is that normally distracts you while you are eating
- Take a moment to express gratitude for the food in front of you
- Look at the food and notice the colours, shapes and textures
- Pay attention to the aroma of the food
- Take slow bites while noticing the taste, texture and sensation
- Notice how your stomach feels as you eat and stop eating when you feel satisfied rather than when your plate is empty
- Observe your thoughts and emotions without judgement
- Bring your mind back to the act of eating every time your mind starts to wander
When you start to incorporate mindful eating into your routine, you’ll cultivate a deeper appreciation for food and will develop a stronger mind-body connection.
I’m not saying it is a practice you need to do every single time you eat a meal however, I highly recommend you do it once a day to see the most benefits.
Related Post: How to reduce your iPhone screen time the ruthless way
4. Mindful walking
Mindful walking is something that I have been doing for many years. It is all about paying attention to your mind and body while you go for a walk and connect with nature.
It is such a wholesome healing experience and it is a great way to help you feel grounded in the world especially when life feels chaotic.
The process of mindful walking is very similar to the mindfulness examples except this time you can focus a lot more on things outside of your body.
- Start by paying attention to each step you take. Notice the sensations of your feet making contact with the ground and the flow of your body as you walk
- Take notice of your breathing throughout your journey, paying attention to the times when your breathing rate increases and decreases depending on the terrain of the location
- Focus on being present by noticing the sounds, sights and smells around you. What do you see? Are there any interesting things that are happening right in front of your eyes whether it is animals interacting with each other or cars driving past?
- Keep your awareness grounded in your body and the present moment. Observe your thoughts and feelings without judgement and gently guide your attention back to the present
- Express gratitude for your body and the journey you were able to go on
I love mindful walking and it is something that I can do for hours on end especially when I am feeling stressed out in life.
There’s something therapeutic about being one with nature and letting go of your worries.
I’ve found that it just puts whatever I have been stressing about into perspective.
Sometimes our problems seem so much bigger than us and we feel like it is the end of the world if things don’t go our way.
However, when you watch a bird flying in the sky, a squirrel chomping on an acorn and the gentle paddling of a duck in a pond you’ll slowly start to accept that no matter what happens you will be okay.
And there’s something freeing about that.
Related Post: The best self-development mentors for holistic wellbeing
5. Mindful Productivity
Now, I can’t write a blog post about ways to practise mindfulness without discussing mindful productivity. I am the mindful productivity queen! It’s literally all I talk about.
I used to be a victim of hustle culture until something snapped in me and I decided that it wasn’t a sustainable way to live my life.
Since then, I have settled on a mindful productivity approach which incorporates all of the mindfulness practices discussed in this blog post and blends it with various productivity systems such as bullet journalling, getting things done and energy management.
In my opinion, it is the ONLY way to be productive in a sustainable way.
Listen up if you’re fed up with burning out every 6 months.
I will keep it brief since this is a topic I can talk about non-stop for days.
- Take some time to identify whether your goals are in alignment with your values. If they are, then great however if they aren’t I recommend you do some deep soul searching (Use this blog post to help you Start living a values based life to be successful)
- Every week, set an intention for what you would like to achieve
- Use time blocking or day theming to help you schedule your tasks for the week
- Limit multitasking – only focus on one task at a time making sure to fully immerse yourself in the present moment
- Pay attention to your energy and work WITH your body instead of against it. This is where regular practice of the body scan meditation will come in handy. Pay attention to what tasks boost your energy and what tasks drain your energy. Find ways to balance your tasks so that you have enough energy to complete them (check out this blog post: 5 energy management techniques to elevate your life)
- Take mindful breaks by going for a walk, journaling, reading or doing meditation. Try not to mindlessly scroll on social media in your breaks because you have no control over what you will consume.
- Practise deep work: dedicate some time for deep, focused work without interruptions. Start small using the Pomodoro Technique (25 mins of work) and then gradually increase as your concentration improves.
- Embrace imperfection: accept that perfection doesn’t exist and that striving for perfection is going to keep you stuck and dissatisfied. Instead, practice gratitude and forgiveness. Allow yourself to make mistakes and find ways to learn from them
- Reflect regularly: at the end of each day write down a short summary about the things you have learnt and any highlights. Then at the end of each week, use journal prompts to help you reflect mindfully on your thoughts, feelings and behaviours during the week (Need some journal prompts? Check out this post: 38 interesting end-of-month journal prompts to realign your life).
Related Post: How to be productive every day – 13 ESSENTIAL mindset shifts!
I hope these simple ways to practise mindfulness help you
The reason I am a big advocate for simple ways to practise mindfulness is that I used to suffer from extreme anxiety that was fueled by perfectionism. I never felt I was good enough and I was always pushing myself to extreme lengths to achieve my goals which would result in regular burnout.
It was horrible! I was always tired and grumpy and just not a pleasant person to be around because I was so focused on the future and the things I weren’t doing.
So exhausting.
It’s only when I incorporated mindfulness practises into my routine I was able to cultivate a tiny bit of peace in my busy mind. Eventually, that peace grew until I had regular moments where I felt grounded.
I had to learn the hard way that hustle culture is not healthy. Yes, you can work hard and achieve your big goals but to do that you need to do it in a sustainable way. Your productivity must not be at a sacrifice to your mind and body.
You deserve so much more than that.
If you want to dive deeper and accelerate your productivity without burning out, consider signing up for the 1-1 Perfectionist Productivity Accelerator. In this session, you’ll receive tailored guidance and support to overcome your procrastination tendencies, optimise your productivity system and achieve your goals with less stress in less time. You will learn how to be productive every day in a tailored way.
Related Post: How to stop living life on autopilot – 7 game-changing steps
Book Recommendations for ways to practise mindfulness
- Deep Work by Cal Newport
- Yoga and the Quest for the True Self – Stephen Cope
- The Body Keeps the Score – Bessel van der Kolk
- Think Like a Monk – Jay Shetty
