What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is our ability to be aware of our awareness and channel it to the here and now. When we are mindful, it allows us to step back from thoughts, separating one’s mind from themselves. Mindfulness is a skill that everyone can and should cultivate because it affects the quality of how we experience our reality.

How does it affect us? A Harvard research shows that most people are in the state of wandering minds 47% of the time, and people who have wandering minds are typically less happy. This makes sense because instead of being in the present, we are engaged in thoughts about the past or the future, this depletes our energy, and usually causes frustration and stress.

In other words, mindfulness is an essential ability that increases our happiness and gives us a better experience of life. If you want to attain this skill, all you have to do is keep reading.

What does it mean and how does it feel to be in the present moment?

Before we move on to how to develop mindfulness, it’s important to establish how it feels like. By putting it into words, it gives you a better idea of how you are doing when you are practising.

When we enter a mindfulness state, the first thing we will usually experience is our attention reverting from the outer world back to our inner world.

Once our attention is back inside, it usually sits in our head as our mind is a strong force that captures a lot of our attention. What we can do is mindfully notice the thoughts that enter our mind, and by doing this, we will experience a space between thoughts and response; giving us the freedom to choose whether to direct our consciousness to engage with it or merely observe.

Mindfulness can also occur in the body. When you focus on a particular area of your body, you will feel your attention moving into the space of focus. By connecting back to the body, you will feel subtle pleasant or unpleasant sensations that are personalised to you. You may also feel detached from your mind and a release of tension on your temples.

Whether our attention is in our mind or body, we can enter a meditative mindful observant state, with no thoughts about the past or future, sometimes no thoughts at all, just our awareness still, grounded and absorbed in the now. This is a beautiful state of being that is available to all of us. With practice, we can live in this present state, and in the next part, we will dive into how to’s.

Exercises to cultivate more mindfulness

Okay, the part that you have been waiting for, how to cultivate more mindfulness. There are many different exercises out there and I will share some of my favourite ones. The key is to remember that mindfulness does not have to occur only during meditation. Every moment is an opportunity to be mindful because it’s not something we do, but a state of being.

Exercise #1) Tuning into the now through breathing

You may have heard that taking a couple of deep breathes increases your mindfulness, and this is true. All you have to do to feel more mindful is take some nice soft long deep breaths. What this does is channel your awareness back into yourself and train your mind to focus only on one thing at a time.

If you want to further sharpen your mind's awareness, you can do it by focusing your attention on your upper lip, the space between your nose and lips. You want to pay attention to the cold air that goes in your nostril and the hot air that comes out that hits your upper lip. It will take practice to notice this subtle feeling, but it’s worth mastering this foundational skill.

Exercise #2) The Acute Observer

For best results with this next mindfulness exercise, it’s best to do it with your eyes closed and connect back to the breath as mentioned in exercise one. As you are connecting to the breath, what you want to do is observe your mind with a relaxed gaze. Pay attention to any thoughts that enter your mind. When a thought enters, your aim is to merely observe, there’s no need to engage with it. If you find yourself engaging with the thoughts, with no judgment, gently guide yourself back to observing. By doing this process repeatedly, your thoughts will soften and eventually enter a state where it is just pure awareness. This practice immensely increases the space between you and your thoughts, empowering you to consciously choose where to direct your attention.

Tips: Sit in a comfortable position and make sure that your back is straight for best results. If you find your inner voice to be too strong, you can direct your attention to your throat, it should help with your observation.

Exercise #3) Body Temple

This mindfulness exercise is great for anyone that wants to take a break from their mind and connect to their body. We can start by taking a couple of long deep breaths and then gently close your eyes. Instead of having your attention directed to your mind, what you will do is circulate your attention around your body. From head to toe, inch by inch, starting at the top of your head. When you feel that your attention has flowed to the spot, you can move your focus to your forehead and repeat the process until every inch of your body has received your attention. This may seem tedious, but what it does is help you become more attuned with your body since where focus goes, energy flows. We tend to give our attention to the outer world that we often neglect our inner self, but every inch of our body deserves our attention.

Tip: When you are scanning your body, sometimes one part of your body may start hurting and will call for your attention. In this situation, try your best to accept the pain and direct your mind to continue with your scanning routine.

Exercise #4) Guided Meditation

If you are someone that prefers a guided approach, what you can do is take part in meditations. There are many good ones out there, all you have to do is browse around to find one that fits you. Mindfulness meditation is just one of many types of meditation.

Tip: Search techniques: (Your problem or goal) + meditation. For example, stress meditation or abundance meditation.

Exercise #5) Mindfulness Everything

Last but not least, you can incorporate mindfulness to your every waking moment since mindfulness is not something you do, but a state of being. The more you experience the state of mindfulness, the more it will become your default state of being, and everything you do will come from that present source. Now when you conduct your daily activities, it’s done mindfully, mindful walking, mindful eating, mindful listening, mindful taking, mindful drawing, mindful thinking...etc

Tip: Remember it takes 21 days to form any habits. Therefore, if you want to maximise your chance of forming a mindful habit, make sure you set a daily reminder to practice a couple of minutes of your favourite mindful practice.

Common questions about mindfulness

How much time should I spend on my mindful practice?

The time spent isn’t really important compared to the quality of your practice. It’s more powerful to have 30 seconds of mindfulness practice than 30mins of mindless practice. A good number to start is 5 minutes, and then slowly build up from there.

When should I practice my mindfulness exercises?

It’s best practice is to do it after you wake up, and before you sleep. However, it depends on what works for you. It’s a good idea to experiment with different times, and observe which work best for you.

Where should I practice my mindfulness practice?

A good place to start practising mindfulness is in your sanctuary location. This is a spot where you feel calm, peaceful and relaxed. Starting in a place with little distractions will be easier for beginners. If you can’t find a quiet space, you can use headphones while playing a guided meditation or binary beats to help you concentrate. With time, your ability to concentrate will increase, and you will be able to practice virtually anywhere at any time.

I am not feeling the difference after my practice, what should I do?

If you don’t feel any difference after your mindfulness exercise, make sure you are practising with proper technique. If you are doing it properly and still not improving, don’t give up. Some people need multiple attempts to feel the effect. When you are discouraged, remember that cultivating mindfulness is like building muscle, will proper practice, consistency and time, anyone can strengthen this part of our brain.

If mindfulness is the craze, why are so many people still so mindless?

Mindfulness has been picking up in popularity for many years now, virtually everyone has heard of the term, but how come there are still so many mindless people?

The fundamental reason for this question is that mindfulness is an experience and not an intellectual understanding. The only way for us to reap the benefits is by practising it. And to be frank, most people do not take action and what usually blocks us is our ego protecting itself from stepping out of its comfort zone.

In an instant gratification world, we are surrounded and addicted by stimuli. Our mind is so used to being entertained, telling it to slow down and connect back to our inner self usually does not sound compelling, and could even be an emotional challenge if you have inner obstacles to overcome.

During your practice, if you feel intense emotions, what helps is focus on being an observer, remind yourself that these feelings are only temporary and acknowledge and love yourself for creating the space for you to connect with yourself.

How can mindfulness affect the workplace?

Mindfulness brings ample benefits to the workplace. Imagine an office where employees are calm, happy, creative, focused, empathetic and productive; that is the potential that practising mindfulness can foster.

Stress

According to a study conducted by The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, 80% of employees reported that they feel stressed at work. Mindfulness has been proven in many research studies that it effectively reduces stress. One simple reason why mindfulness works is that it grounds us in the now, helping us focus at our present task, instead of thinking about the past or future.

Creativity

Mindfulness also helps boost our creativity. During the brainstorming stage also known as preparation, divergent thinking is required to come up with good ideas. Mindfulness meditation switches on our divergent thinking, allowing us to come up with more novel ideas. Once we select an idea, we enter the incubation stage which requires us to detach from our mind for our subconscious to work out the details. Mindfulness practice helps the mind relax, creating the optimal environment for it to form new connections. Next, we enter the illumination stage which is where you receive your ideas. Mindfulness helps clear our cluttered mind and sharpens our awareness to notice any ideas that enter our consciousness. So when an idea enters, it is loud and clear. Lastly, during the verification phase, where you use your convergent thinking to test the idea, mindfulness will increase your focus, motivation, and resilience to successfully execute the task.

Relationships

Have you ever found your emotions getting the best of you? You are stressed and may say something that you didn’t mean to your co-workers as a form of energy release? Mindfulness practice will help reduce this behaviour. Studies show, after 8 to 10 weeks of mindfulness practice, the connectivity between the prefrontal cortex, the rational panel, and the amygdala, the flight and fight panel increases. This means, when you are in the middle of a heated conversation and you are about to lose it, your prefrontal cortex has a higher chance of sending a calming message to the amygdala to return to equanimity. By increasing our emotional regulation, we will find ourselves to be a more empathetic, calm and loving self and a better relationship will be a natural byproduct of this transformation.

Implementing mindfulness in the office

If you want to implement mindfulness practice in the office, what you can do is form the habit of one-minute mindfulness meditation before you enter any tasks. This helps you get grounded in the present and primes your mind to get in a flow. Another cool idea to introduce more mindfulness in the office is to dedicate a room for employees to meditate when they wish to.

Ideas

Search on Eventbrite and Facebook events for the lastest mindfulness event around your area.

Attend a wellness conference to dip your toes into the different modalities.

Attend a meditation retreat to experience a full mindfulness immersion.

I hoped that you have enjoyed this mindfulness series. Remember that mindfulness is not something you do, but a state of being. Keep practising, and it will become your default state. Thank you for reading until the end, I wish you a beautiful rest of your day.

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