Mindful is becoming a buzzword right around the world but what people don’t realize is that there are loads of ways you can become mindful. There are mindfulness techniques that anyone can try at home….You may already be practicing some of them without even realizing it.
- Watching the breath. A classic mindfulness technique where you concentrate on your breath, we give a great description how to do it here – How to meditate.
- Eating a raisin. This classic technique involves eating a raisin and focusing on the taste and the feel of the raisin as you chew it. Which muscles are you using? What does it feel like in your mouth?What is the texture like?
- Eat anything mindfully.
- Brushing your teeth.Brushing your teeth can be a great moment of mindfulness. Concentrate on the moment, focus on the brush noise and the feeling in your mouth.
- Body scan technique. In this technique you focus on various parts of your body. Start at your little toe and work your way to the whole body. You focus on each part independantly and try and gleam as much info about that part of your body as you focus on it. What it feels like, what its touching. Is it warm? That sort of thing.
- Mindful seeing. As the name sounds, you sit with your eyes open for this technique. You ened to notice everything in your visual field. Not just stare at things but focus on things. What they look like, what colour they are, what is the texture like?
- Mindful listening. As well as looking you can listen…But really listen instead of just letting the sounds go in your ears. What do the sounds mean?What do they sound like? Picture the sounds in your mind, form a picture of what the sound is.
- Self compassion. Most people find it easy to be compassionate about others, but when it comes to themselves…not so much. The self compassion technique means you pause for a while during your day and offer yourself genuine words of compassion and believe them. First acknowledge your suffering, then justify it by telling yourself that it is just part of being a human…Then say something like ‘Im going to experience peace and treat myself with love and kindness….’ Or something similar. Then get back on with the rest of your day.
- General observation. Pick an object and observe it for a while. Focus only on the object. When you mind wanders, bring it back to the object. Notice all the little details about it, textures, colors etc. Only focus on the object and nothing else.
- Immersion. Immersion means to totally immerse yourself into whatever activity you choose. It could be literally anything, but you need to immerse yourself entirely in it. Concentrate only on the thing you are doing….Could be painting, drawing, cleaning up etc.
- Mindful running or walking. You probably already do some form of walking but don’t really pay attention to it. To walk mindfully you need to pay attention to whats going on. Notice the wind against your face, the feeling of your feet touching the ground, the feeling of your clothes rubbing on you….Focus on everything that is happening as you walk.
- Five senses technique. This is a technique needs you to experience something and then focus on all five senses that are being effected by it. Eating a meal for example will effect all five senses. Focus on the senses and what exactly is happening.
More to come….