6 Mindfulness Activities You Can Try Today

Men­tal health is as impor­tant as phys­i­cal health; many of us go to the gym and spend much mon­ey keep­ing our phys­i­cal health strong. But often, such care is not exhib­it­ed when it comes to men­tal health. Men­tal health and peace fall short of sig­nif­i­cance due to the stress­ful work cul­ture that exists today. Peo­ple wor­ry about the thou­sand dead­lines await­ing them, and in the process, they have no time to set aside for a break. We can relieve our stress and embark on men­tal peace with zero cost and some effort. Ready to know more? We brush our teeth every day, clean our­selves every day, don’t we? While such basic process­es need dai­ly atten­tion, men­tal health needs as well. Mind­ful­ness activ­i­ties are a great place to begin; they help you pause, take a break and pull your mind’s con­cen­tra­tion abil­i­ties to one cen­ter. Sounds cool, right! Grab and save your men­tal health before it descends to utter doom by sim­ple prac­tices such as meditation.  Med­i­ta­tion is com­mon­ly per­ceived as hav­ing a reli­gious asso­ci­a­tion, but it doesn’t have to be reli­gious; it is spir­i­tu­al. It has its roots in Bud­dhism, but it is wide­ly prac­ticed world­wide just as an activ­i­ty of mindfulness. Med­i­ta­tion is sim­ply a fair amount of time for your mind to be free from the busy world out­side. Many advanced stress-reduc­ing prac­tices have their foun­da­tion laid in the prac­tice of meditation. Sci­en­tif­ic exper­i­ments were car­ried out to test the effect of med­i­ta­tion, and it has been proven that med­i­ta­tion helps reduce the amount of cor­ti­sol pro­duced in your body. Cor­ti­sol? Hang on, I’ll tell you. Cor­ti­sol is a hor­mone, also known as the ‘stress hor­mone.’ I think that speaks volumes. Our body releas­es more and more cor­ti­sol while we are in a stress­ful sit­u­a­tion, and it affects our heart-beat rate, our reflex­es, etc. Exces­sive lev­els of cor­ti­sol imbal­ances can have extreme effects on your body, such as low ener­gy lev­els, anx­i­ety, weight gain, mem­o­ry prob­lems, etc. So, now you under­stand that stress is noth­ing to look down at. On your way to med­i­tate? Good! Very sim­ple mea­sures can ensure that your med­i­ta­tion will be fruit­ful every sin­gle time. Let’s start!

• The Envi­ron­ment:

The place you select to spend this cru­cial amount of time med­i­tat­ing is cru­cial. You shouldn’t be in the midst of a busy place; we aim to escape the rush. Find a peace­ful cor­ner (if you can go out­side and it’s peace­ful, it is the best) and make sure that you are wear­ing clothes that make you feel free. You should feel free in every man­ner; your clothes, mind, and sur­round­ings should be as free and calm as possible.

• Breathe:

A slow and uni­form breath­ing pat­tern should be adopt­ed while med­i­tat­ing; close your eyes and con­cen­trate on how you breathe. For once, bring your focus to you and enjoy it. Be aware of this mag­nif­i­cent process of breath­ing which we take for grant­ed every day. 

• Con­cen­tra­tion:

It would help if you left all your wor­ries aside while you med­i­tate. Med­i­ta­tion is not anoth­er excuse to wor­ry over a work­ing sched­ule or pend­ing wages; it’s the oppo­site. It is about find­ing peace in the midst of this bat­tle­field of life and sur­vival. Find that moment of calm and thor­ough­ly enjoy it.

• Con­sis­ten­cy:

Make med­i­ta­tion a con­sis­tent prac­tice, a part of your dai­ly rou­tine. As you go for­ward, you’ll find that a few min­utes of peace pre­pares you for the worst day in the best man­ner pos­si­ble. You will be ener­gized with­out that dai­ly dose of caffeine.

• Aware­ness:

Like notic­ing your breath­ing pat­tern, be aware of what your whole body is doing. Adapt your­self into a fine pos­ture, the back straight and legs crossed; don’t get me wrong, do not sit stiffly. It would help if you were relaxed, but the body should main­tain the right posture. Be pos­i­tive, and accept mis­takes. It would be best if you were aim­ing for slow and con­sis­tent progress, achieve­ment of real­is­tic goals. Being kind to your­self is a very lib­er­at­ing kind of self-love. Anoth­er key to hav­ing a good day is aware­ness of con­trol. Be aware that you can incor­po­rate moments of peace into many instances of your dai­ly sched­ule; when you eat, show­er, and dri­ve, con­scious­ly steer into your peace­ful and joy­ful mood. Avoid dri­ving in a fren­zy; it will only make you more stressed. And we all know that it’s bet­ter being late than…..losing your mind (or your life!).  A reg­u­lar work­out can keep you fit and hap­py; it depends on how you look at it. If you are a per­son who looks at your gym mem­ber­ship as a waste of mon­ey, then can­cel it. You don’t need a fan­cy gym and a lot of equip­ment to keep your­self fit and happy. You can always go for a run or learn activ­i­ties such as danc­ing or mar­tial arts; less cost­ly equip­ment such as jump­ing rope has proven to be very effec­tive car­dio­vas­cu­lar exer­cise. I am a big fan of jump ropes; I use them almost every day. My pos­ture is now bet­ter, and my sta­mi­na has increased for sure. The key to a great and last­ing work­out is mak­ing a mix and keep­ing it inter­est­ing and challenging.

Here Are Some Mindfulness Exercises To Do:

1- Observation

This activ­i­ty will help you recon­nect with your envi­ron­ment (keep those smart­phones and lap­tops away, peo­ple!). Choose a peace­ful spot and choose one object. It doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly have to be inan­i­mate objects; if you are lucky enough, spot a squir­rel or a bird and observe their activ­i­ties with utmost concentration. Try start­ing with 5 min­utes at a time and lat­er test your lim­its; see how long you can observe some beau­ti­ful phe­nom­e­non of nature. Believe me; it has the same ther­a­peu­tic effect as watch­ing the sun­set on a qui­et beach.

2- Awareness

This activ­i­ty will defa­mil­iar­ize your dai­ly activ­i­ties. Just be aware of every sin­gle thing you do, from unlock­ing a door to cook­ing. Famil­iar­iza­tion can often take away the beau­ty of activ­i­ties; let’s find the beau­ty again. Observ­ing how the air enters and leaves the lungs—while calm­ly observ­ing feel­ings, thoughts,  and sen­sa­tions as they occur. Observe how beau­ti­ful its to watch milk boil or take in the aro­ma of tea, cof­fee, even the piz­za you ordered when the cook­ing blew up in your face!

3- Appreciation

Even though hun­dreds of things might have gone wrong in your life late­ly, find those things you are thank­ful for and take a few min­utes to appre­ci­ate them (yes, spend every day like it’s Thanksgiving!). It helps you be less grumpy and more cheer­ful; isn’t that the dream? As you become more and more relieved, the chances of you hav­ing a melt­down from anger and frus­tra­tion will also decrease.

4- Gratitude Journal

Let’s take appre­ci­a­tion to a more advanced lev­el; keep a jour­nal to write all your hap­py things, all the stuff you feel thank­ful for. Not only should you write in it reg­u­lar­ly, pick it up and read some entries every morn­ing as a dai­ly reminder. Take time to breathe and appre­ci­ate every­thing you are grate­ful for.

5- Ear Training

Just close your eyes and lis­ten to the sounds around you; try to iden­ti­fy its source cor­rect­ly. Please do not rush through it; take your time. Make it even more fun by mak­ing it a com­pe­ti­tion between you and your friends or fam­i­ly. It’ll pro­vide a nov­el­ty to your qual­i­ty time and maybe make them aware of the beau­ty of mind­ful­ness exercises.

6- Clean Your Room

I know it sounds like some­thing your par­ents would say but hear me out; clean­ing is, in fact, ther­a­peu­tic. It gives you a sense of con­trol amidst all the chaos you call life. Clean your room and, if pos­si­ble, cre­ate a spe­cial space for you to pam­per your­self; to read, to drink cof­fee, to med­i­tate, to reflect. Enaam Ela­mas­si (cer­ti­fied high-per­for­mance coach™) has been con­tributed to the article.

Wrapping up!

Count­less mind­ful­ness activ­i­ties can be incor­po­rat­ed into your dai­ly sched­ule. To see what will suit you best, you should under­stand your­self and your inter­ests. For me, I am a per­son extreme­ly inter­est­ed in music and movies. When I’m hav­ing a bad day, I always look for­ward to com­ing home and lis­ten­ing to my favorite music. At times, I will close blinds and doors, switch off the lights, blast my favorite songs and dance. Let me tell you; it is one of the most lib­er­at­ing expe­ri­ences I have had in my entire life. Care­ful­ly craft exer­cise to fit your needs and inter­ests; the best advice was giv­en by Socrates years ago; ‘know thyself.’