These days, “Mindfulness” is a Buzzword.

But what is it? In therapy, we’re actually going over what mindfulness is. I have a whole workbook chapter I’m supposed to do this week over it. So, thankfully, I’m fully prepared to give you some examples of mindfulness in this blog post.

In this blog post, I’m going to go over 7 examples of mindfulness and how you can incorporate them into your daily life.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is when you take the time to just be and notice things, and then accept those things you noticed. For example, if you sit and notice how your body feels in different situations and then accept those feelings, that’s mindfulness. It’s also about being present in the moment and not worrying about the things you would typically be worrying about.

For example, if it’s the weekend and you’re sitting on your porch with a cup of coffee, there’s no use in spending that time worried about what you have to do on Monday. Instead, you can spend the time tasting your coffee, listening to the birds chirp, seeing the leaves fall, and feeling the wind on your face. You can still recognize your worry, of course, because that is part of mindfulness too. You’re not trying to change anything — you’re simply accepting everything that is and going with it.

How to Incorporate Mindfulness into Your Daily Life

I would suggest starting the day with a mindfulness exercise. This way, you start your day off on the right foot, and it makes the rest of your day easier to get through. It also makes it easier to access mindfulness throughout the day if you’ve already done it once that day.

I would also suggest ending your day with a mindfulness exercise. This way, you are properly destressing from the day and it will make it easier for you to wind down and sleep.

Another thing I would suggest is to just practice mindfulness throughout the day. Any time you feel you feel off or just need a quick breather, give one of the following mindfulness exercises a try.

Now, onto the examples of mindfulness.

Use Your Senses

Most of the time, when we do things, we are thinking about doing other things. Stopping that process and taking the time to slow down and notice what we’re doing is a big example of mindfulness.

This is what mindfulness really comes down to — using your senses to notice all the things around you, and then accept all those things as they are. I’ll give you some examples below of how you can use your senses to incorporate mindfulness into your daily life. As you read through these, think about how you can notice something new about all these things with your senses the next time you do them.

Hearing

Focus on what you’re hearing. What does your daily commute sound like? How about the music or podcast you play in your car on the way there? What do you hear when you’re out sitting on your front porch at night?

Sight

Focus on your sight. What do you see when you pick your clothes out in the morning? How about when you get dressed and walk out the door? What do you see when you read a book? How about when you’re around the people you love? What do they look like?

Touch

Focus on your touch. What do you feel when you wash your hair at night? How about when you brush your teeth? What does it feel like when you touch a hot cup of coffee or a cold pint of ice cream?

Smell

Focus on what you smell now. What do you smell when you make your breakfast, lunch, or dinner? How about when you cut the grass outside? Or when you smell a candle?

Taste

Focus on your taste now. What do you taste when you eat your breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Did you make your favorite food? What does it taste like? Are all the flavors right?

Body Scan

This is one of the most common ways to practice mindfulness. If you haven’t heard of it, I’ll give you a quick rundown. Body scanning is what it sounds like — you scan your body from head to toe, looking for how it feels. This is very useful to assess how you’re feeling at any given moment. It is also practicing mindfulness because you are taking the time to slow down and notice how your body feels in the moment.

But, how is this helpful to me? Well, if you can recognize if anything is going on in your body that you don’t like, and if there is, you can work on taking the steps to fix it.

Mindful Eating

Mindful eating is like the scene from Ratatouille where Remi is showing Emil how to really experience the flavors while he’s eating, and all the flavors swirl around him in his head. Okay, it’s not that dramatic, but it is a good example of what mindful eating can be like. You want to experience every little thing. What do the noodles REALLY taste like, what do they feel like in your mouth? This can be a little weird to try at first,  but once you get the hang of it, it’s actually pretty fun.

Take a Mindful Walk

This is when you take a walk around your neighborhood or favorite park and focus your energy on noticing the things around you, and how your body feels in that environment. For people who are disabled, like me, this might not always be possible — so instead, you can sit by your window or go outside in your backyard and just relax out there while you notice everything.

Meditate Mindfully

I’m sure you’re thinking, “Isn’t meditating really being mindful?” But the answer is no! Meditation and mindfulness are two different things and can be practiced together or separately. So, what I mean by mindful meditation is to sit with yourself and let yourself feel everything that you are feeling and let yourself think everything that you are thinking. There is a specific meditation technique called “noting” that encourages you to do exactly that. I go over it in this post about simple self-care ideas. What I’ll say about it here is it’s one of my very favorite meditation techniques and it really makes you practice mindfulness.

You can also meditate mindfully by just sitting or lying wherever you are and just noticing all that there is around you. Maybe you hear birds chirping, or maybe you feel the warm sun shining on your face. Maybe you’re in a not-so-pleasant space and hear a bunch of people talking or machines working, but either way, calming down and listening to and feeling what’s around you is practicing mindfulness, and it’s known to calm people down.

Breathing Exercises

In this post about how to deal with anxiety attacks, I go over some of my favorite breathing exercises. I’m going to include them here as well so you don’t have to hunt them down yourself.

Here they are:

• Count your breaths. 1 on the inhale, 2 on the exhale, all the way up to 10, and then start over. Try and breathe deeply and slowly for this. Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth,
• Do the 4-7-8 breathing technique. Inhale for 4 seconds, hold it for 7, and then exhale for 8. This helps reduce anxiety and also helps with sleep if you do it at night in bed.
• Box breathing. This is when you pick a number, say 4, and breathe in a “square”. Inhale for 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4, and then pause for 4 again.

Express Gratitude

In this post about journals to keep, one of the types of journals I go over is the gratitude journal. Here is a little excerpt from that post:

This is the one that everyone has heard of, I’m sure. But just in case you haven’t, here’s the rundown — a gratitude journal is where you write down at least one thing you are grateful for every day. It’s like when you go around the table at Thanksgiving and go down the list of what you’re thankful for, but in journal form.”

But, how is this practicing mindfulness, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you how! If you take the time to slow down and notice the things you are grateful for, you are practicing mindfulness right there. Now, you don’t have to keep a journal for this if you don’t want to, but I would suggest practicing gratitude every now and then — especially when it feels like the hardest thing in the world. No matter where you are, there is always something to be grateful for. You just have to find it.

In Conclusion…

Mindfulness is an important practice to incorporate into your life because it makes you slow down and focus on reality. Reality can be scary sometimes, but other times, it can be really beautiful. Mindfulness in itself is neutral, what you make of it is up to you.

I hope you found something useful to you here, thanks so much for reading!

— Bee <333