Mindfulness

What is Mindfulness? | Benefits of Mindfulness? | Types of Mindfulness | FAQ

Mindfulness is the ability to be fully aware of where we are and what we’re doing, i.e. being fully aware. This awareness comes by not being overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us [1].

• Being mindful allows us to be fully engaged in activities. This teaches us to savour the pleasures in life as they occur.
• By being mindful, we are less likely to get caught up in worries about the future or regrets over the past. Furthermore, mindfulness practitioners are less preoccupied with concerns of the self.

• Practicing mindfulness helps one maintain low levels of stress, more restful sleep, reduced blood pressure and better discernment. Additionally, it reduces chronic pain by reducing the brain’s sensitivity to pain.

• Mindfulness allows us to clear our mind and focus on the present day, setting a positive tone everyday.
• Recently, many mental health professionals have incorporated mindfulness meditation in their treatment of mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety disorders.

Mindful eating is about developing awareness of our experiences, physical cues, and feelings about food. It helps us distinguish between emotional and physical hunger. Moreover, it increases our awareness of food-related triggers, like the sight and smell of food, and guides us to choose better responses to them.

We can practice mindful eating by following these four steps:

• Eating slowly by chewing thoroughly and not rushing through the meal 
• Removing distractions such as TV or phones 
• Paying attention to the textures, smells, colours and flavours of the food with our senses
• Noticing how full we are feeling as we eat and stopping once we feel full

Mindfulness goes beyond being still and quiet; it can also be practised with activity and liveliness. Mindfulness exercising is moving in a way that not only strengthens the body but also shifts us into a state of awareness and feeling more capable to handle challenges in life.

Instead of purely focusing on workouts and going through the motions, be attuned to how your body is feeling and what thoughts are running through your mind. Sideline these thoughts and intentionally focus on the current moment and the actions that you are doing as part of your exercise routine. Overall, do not let mundanity and routineness make you pay any less attention!

Mindfulness journaling is a great avenue for us to reflect on our thoughts and emotions and write them down. After all, thoughts play a critical role in how we experience and respond to a situation. By identifying both helpful and unhelpful emotions and the reason for them, we can then consider what we can do as a response. 

Some questions to facilitate your journaling include:

• Why am I reacting so strongly?
• Are my thoughts helping or hindering me?
• Are my thoughts grounded in reality? 
• Is there an alternative way of looking at my situation? 
• Within this seemingly overwhelming situation, what are some things still within my control?

In this journal, we can also note down the things we are grateful for each day. With more gratitude, we will have more resources to turn to when we face challenges and will be more likely to remain positive.

Compassionate mindfulness is choosing not to remain in the spiral of fear or self-condemnation, but rather choosing to slow down and help ourselves find peace with our current situation. This helps us move forward one step at a time after setbacks.

A good way to exercise mindfulness compassion is by using releasing statements to forgive ourselves for the negativity we feel, or the blame we place on ourselves for the situation we find ourselves in.

• E.g. “Yes, I should have started earlier. But I will do what I can in this moment, to the best of my ability. I will learn from this experience.”
• E.g. “I’m going through a mind block, and I’m so anxious; it’s okay, I’ll give myself a minute to relax, then return to this task. I’ll do it one step at a time.”

Additionally, mindful compassion entails letting go of things outside of our control and focusing on what you can control.

• Things outside our control include the opinions of others or mistakes we have already made.
• Things we can control include possible actions we can take in the current moment to improve the situation.

Mindfulness for anxiety entails using mindful meditation techniques in response to our anxieties.

Deep breathing is an effective and proven method for helping us calm down when we are feeling anxious. In slowing our heart rate, our slow breathing signals to the brain for it to relax. For example, the 4-2-6 deep breathing technique states that we should breathe in deeply for 4 counts, hold for 2 counts, then exhale fully for 6 counts.

For more practical tips on how to practice mindfulness in your daily life, check out our blog post!