“Being mindful is a deliberate choice” ~Anonymous
In a digitalized world like the one we live in, it is very difficult to pay attention to the little things that matter. We are always caught up with doing so many things at a time and end up missing out on the things we would most probably find more relaxing and refreshing.
There are tons of distractions that steal our focus from our physical and mental self to all that time-consuming and stressful responsibilities.
Mindfulness is simply paying attention and becoming more aware of ourselves and environments. The resultant effect of being mindful is simply mind-blowing. There are several benefits of practicing mindfulness asides from drastically reducing stress and highly increasing productivity in every area of your life.
Mindfulness helps you to discern more, awakens your mind, improves your health, and gives you rest of mind in your career and/or relationship.
There are several easy ways to help you understand and realize how to be mindful at work, how to be mindful in relationships, and how to improve mindfulness. I will be sharing 100 ways to be mindful. If you are already mindful, you can also learn a thing or two on how to be more mindful at work and some how to be mindful quotes to get you started.
1. Keep A Journal
Now, this is where I’ve got good news for you! If you are an avid reader of my blog, you know very well that I talk about journals a lot.
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As you already know, the benefit of keeping a journal is endless. Writing your feelings and experiences down helps gets them out of your busy head and you can start to see those feelings in the most objective way. Writing about those stressful or emotional events can help you improve your overall physical and psychological health.
2. Slow Down
Taking things easy helps you achieve and do more. A typical example is a carpenter sharpening his saw for so many hours to cut down a tree in seconds. When you slow down with your daily activities, you do more in less time and get double the result.
3. Stretch Every Morning
Stretching is very much recommended before exercise because it improves blood circulation and flexibility.
4. Try Exercising
You can start with light exercises daily. As you do the exercises, you should be very conscious of the changes your body experiences during and after the exercise.
5. Practice Yoga
Yoga can be referred to as a group of mental, physical, and spiritual practices that originated in ancient India. The mind is continuously going back and forth, to the past and future, drowning you in a lot of thoughts, fears, and worries. A very good way to dispel this is to become aware of those thoughts. Yoga can guide you on this journey.
With Yoga, you can maintain a very composed and completely aware state of mind. When your mind is aware, you are sensitive to other people’s feelings and your general surrounding.
A clear mind is a very powerful weapon, helping you to make effective decisions. When the mind is calm, it strengthens your focus, creativity, and overall productivity and this is a necessary aspect of learning how to be mindful.
6. Daydream
Mindfulness teaches us exactly how to deal with ‘stimulus-independent thought’. We all have several thoughts pop into our heads nonstop daily. It is normal for humans. The difference is in how we handle these thoughts.
Daydreamers will let these thoughts become a seed. After they are planted, they grow resulting in random and absorbing fantasies. Or they expand on a particular thought and get completely absorbed at the detriment of their awareness.
Practitioners of mindfulness usually aim to recognize such thoughts popping into their heads and let them pass without dwelling on them. Thus, the thought “It’s not really possible to be fully aware of one’s surroundings while dwelling on one specific idea”.
There has to always be a place where our awareness is focused, either internally or externally. We can’t focus on both simultaneously. It’s simply a matter of how much of that awareness is given to our surroundings or thoughts.
Engaging in daydreaming and taking our awareness internally is a good thing depending on how it’s used. Productive daydreaming has to be focused on topics relevant to the dreamers’ life and has to be realistic. Daydreaming is a very powerful tool if used correctly.
7. Practice Meditation
Meditation is one very useful approach to knowing how to be mindful. During meditation, you should sit in an isolated corner for some hours and empty your mind. During mindful meditation, you will realize that your thoughts and feelings will start to move in a similar pattern. It helps you to relax, reduce anxiety and stress.
8. Eat Slowly
The reason for mindful eating is that it helps you savor every moment you eat. Try chewing slowly and if possible, follow this routine;
- Bless your meal.
- Release body tension.
- Smell your food before you start eating.
- Limit the use of devices as you eat.
- Decide if you enjoyed the meal or not.
9. Make Eye Contacts
Making eye contact is a very important tool in mindfulness. Gazing is a type of meditation that can be done alone or with a partner. It is the practice of staring directly into someone’s eyes, in an attempt to zone in on an intention with the person you are sharing contact with. This could range from self-comfort to a deeper understanding of someone’s past lives.
In terms of partner gazing, the same thing is done, but those involved look at each other rather than gaze into a mirror. This gives the same effect, drawing people together, possibly even bringing a bond between those involved.
Eye gazing is becoming popular as many people strive to attain both mindfulness and body confidence.
10. Put Away Your Phone And Devices
Excessive use of devices is the core reason why we are disconnected from our environment. The first step in learning how to be mindful is deliberately and occasionally putting away your devices and keeping your mind connected to your environment.
A mindful person knows when to use technological devices like smartphones, laptops, pcs, television, and so on. Once you gain control of your digital life, you can increase general performance which would reflect in your physical and mental life.
11. Smell Your Shampoo
This may seem really strange and odd at first until you make it a habit. Have you ever taken the time to observe how much sense of joy and happiness you feel when you perceive something nice? That’s what I’m talking about. Shampoos most times have diverse nice perfumes that are very uplifting to perceive. Don’t forget that a nice fragrance can light up any room.
12. Hug Someone You Love
Hugs are really underrated. Asides from being the perfect remedy in our downtimes, hugs help to relieve stress and lower our blood pressure. Pretty shocking right? Hugs also give you the impression that there’s someone there to share all your burdens with.
13. Stargaze
The stars are one of the most beautiful yet puzzling things to behold. There is the fictional interpretation of stars to mean a place of happiness or happy ever after. Stargazing helps you to widen your level of imagination.
When you go stargazing, especially with a loved one, your eyes are fixed on the beauty of the stars. This subconsciously causes you to imagine and recall beautiful memories. Even when you recall the sad ones, they aren’t so sad anymore. Do this many nights if you want to best succeed in knowing how to be mindful.
14. Listen To A Song With Earplugs And Pay Attention To The Sound And Lyrics
It is one thing to passively listen to a song and another to feel the sound and consume every word. This is what you should develop. Learn to actively listen to songs to get the exact message and feeling which the artist packaged for your pleasure.
15. Smile To Say Good Morning
Smiling is the best therapy when you’re feeling blue. Each time you smile, you are communicating love, sincerity, and happiness. Now, smiling to say good morning means you’re sharing the love, sincerity, and happiness that you have with the other person. It is communicating how much you really wish that person a happy and fulfilling day ahead.
16. Send A Sweet Message To Someone You Love
If you want to make those who you love to feel appreciated, then giving them a thoughtful reminder of how much they mean to you is the perfect way to master how to be mindful.
When you send messages to those you love and care about, it is a sincere expression of your affection. You don’t have to wait until they are celebrating a particular occasion before simply reminding them how special they are.
When you do this, it prepares you and teaches you how to consciously appreciate the people around you, especially those you love dearly.
17. Live In The Moment
Lastly and very importantly, if you really want to learn how to be mindful you should learn to live in the moment. Living in the moment helps to eliminate every form of work and panic because you’re savoring the present. You should know that you are more at ease and more focused when you put all your attention at the moment.
The secret to learning how to be mindful is keeping an open mind and having the willingness to pay more attention and give an undivided commitment to yourself, your environment, and those things and people that matter most to you.
18. Feel Your Heartbeat
Feeling your heartbeat can help your focus increase and generally helps with awareness. Feeling your heartbeat can be achieved through meditation, by sitting or taking a comfortable position and listening to your heartbeat, you could even change your breathing and see how it affects your heartbeat.
This practice is important as doing it would deepen your focus and awareness both internally and externally.
19. Take A Shower And Feel The Water Run Down Your Body
Showers are always relaxing. This is why it is very common to shower after a stressful day. Nevertheless, learning how to be mindful entails taking mindful showers. Allow the water (hot or cold) freely run down your body and notice how much relief you get from the activity.
20. Uni-Tasking (Do One Thing At A Time)
Multitasking has been proven to slow down productivity. Juggling tasks can result in divided attention and increases the time you spend on important tasks or activities. This ends up decreasing your accuracy.
Uni-tasking involves a conscious and full commitment to the task at hand. It is being fully engaged in one experience or task at a time. Being mindful about what you are doing helps you to actualize mindful awareness in which you can carefully and totally focus on that particular thing that you are currently doing.
Uni-tasking produces a higher quality performance. It also helps to increase your productivity by enabling you to execute a task effectively and efficiently before moving on to the next one.
21. Watch The Sunset
Sunsets are romantic and beautiful. It will put you in a better mood. The beauty of the sunset is enough to enrich your life and make it much more rewarding. It is widely known that watching the sunset can give you a better sense of gratitude for the earth.
When you embrace the beauty of nature which the sunset is one of, you get to remove and expel all forms of distractions in your daily life and feel a higher sense of satisfaction and gratitude for everything you have around you.
22. Pay Attention To Little Details
We usually see a lot of things, but we don’t pay honest attention to them. We can learn to pay more attention to people and events. You can practice this at your office or in a public space such as a park or bus stops, just observe the little events, pieces of clothing on people, specific habits of people and the likes.
When we intentionally pay attention to little things, it becomes second nature to us and increases our general awareness.
23. Write Quotes On Sticky Notes And Stick Them In Your Home Or Office
There are several motivational quotes on how to be mindful that can help you develop yourself into becoming more mindful. These quotes can be written down on sticky notes to serve as a reminder and a guide to mindfulness. Some very good ones are;
- “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”
- “The real meditation is how you live your life.”
- “Be happy in the moment, that’s enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.”
- “When you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” ~Lao Tzu
- “In today’s rush, we all think too much — seek too much — want too much — and forget about the joy of just being.” ~Eckhart Tolle
- “If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.” ~Pema Chodron
24. Wake Up Gently
You should allow yourself to wake up normally sometimes without the alarm clock which compels you to wake up even when the body is not fit. To efficiently take this step on how to be mindful, you should retire to bed early so that you can get enough sleep and still wake up in time for work or other important activities.
When you wake up, avoid just jumping out of bed and starting your activities for the day. After waking up, allow yourself time to reflect on any dreams or thoughts you may have had through the night and how good you feel now that you’ve woken up.
Think about what needs to be done and the best ways to achieve more. Allow yourself time after you wake while still on the bed, never hop out of bed or hurriedly wake up.
25. Stop Giving Excuses
The majority of people give excuses for their lack of mindfulness. It’s unproductive to give excuses for anything, there are a lot of ways to deal with mindfulness but the first step is to stop making excuses and start practicing mindfulness.
26. Observe People And Things
Never just glance and look away if you want to learn how to be mindful. It involves paying keen attention to everything and everyone around you. When you do this, you’ll notice that you will be more sensitive to your environment and the people around. When something goes wrong, you’ll be able to tell and if someone needs you, you become more insightful and available.
27. Make Use Of Daily Affirmations
There’s no habit better than always having and affirming positive words daily. Learning how to be mindful in your day to day life would involve you holding on and affirming positive words that would keep your spirit more alive.
Below is a list of other things you can do, to be more mindful of your environment:
28. Feel the sun on your skin.
29. Buy fresh flowers and smell them.
30. Notice something beautiful daily about someone.
31. Flex your toes and feel your muscles stretching.
32. Close your door gently when you come in and go out.
33. Go to the spa for a massage and feel yourself getting more relaxed.
34. Intentionally play with your kids and pets.
36. Smell the ingredients as you cook.
37. If someone says “how are you”, reply truthfully and insightfully.
38. Visit a garden, smell, and feel the fresh breeze.
40. Take conscious walks.
41. Listen carefully when having a conversation.
42. Take deep breaths when you feel stressed.
43. Say ‘thank you’.
44. Slowly brush your hair.
45. Listen to the sound of your laughter.
46. Tell someone you love them and noticed the feeling you get after that.
47. Say ‘no’ if you’re not up to it.
48. Visit somewhere new and observe.
49. Do something nice for yourself.
50. Feel the warmth and comfort of your bed.
51. Feel yourself breath.
52. Slowly read a book.
53. Fold your laundry slowly.
54. Stare at yourself in the mirror.
55. Have a particular mindset or expectation for the day.
56. Take breaks.
57. Go outside.
58. Observe and find out how you are feeling from time to time.
59. Simplify your day as much as possible.
60. Do something you love.
61. Notice when your mind has wandered.
62. Go easy on yourself.
63. Be patient.
64. Let go.
65. Have fun.
66. Notice body sensation.
67. Pay close attention to your emotions.
68. Become aware of your cravings and how and when it changes.
69. Wash the dishes, observe the smell of the soap, running water at the sounds of the plates as these decrease nervousness.
70. Observe in nothing time.
71. Drink a lot of water.
72. Have a priority list.
73. Keep a daily to-do list.
74. Question your assumptions.
75. Appreciate yourself every day.
76. Seek to try out new experiences.
77. Allow yourself to vent when you feel like.
78. Joke around.
79. Filter your thoughts and what goes into your mind.
80. Increase your awareness.
81. Take morning tea or coffee.
82. Write down your important thoughts.
83. Release your emotions.
84. Get creative.
85. Put your phone on airplane mode when you’re in meetings.
86. Notice what frame your mind is in.
87. Call an old friend.
88. Get a good night’s sleep.
89. Be fully aware and present.
90. Use Reminders and alerts.
91. Adopt an attitude of gratitude.
92. Be more humble.
93. Accept what cannot change.
94. Sit down often.
95. Think growth every day.
96. Organize something at work or at home.
97. Cook yourself a meal.
98. Set small daily goals.
99. Help someone.
100. Laugh regularly.
So, there you have it! 100 amazing things you can do to be more mindful of your environment. Which are you practicing for now? And what do you think is missing on the list? Feel free to reach out to me via the comment section below. I will be there to reply to every one of you!
For You:
Thank you very much for reading up to this point! I hope that after reading this you must have learned a thing or two about being mindful of your environment. As you journey into the world of personal development, don’t forget to get your copy of our journal and planner.
The team and I have put in so much effort in making this a possibility and we can assure you that getting a copy will never be a bad thing at all. Love and miracle…
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A must read for everyone. No one is absolved from the daily
presures of life, and this content for mindfulness are like a lifering to managing our lives.
Thank you for this!