The Basics of Mindfulness 

You may already have a preconceived notion about mindfulness. Mindfulness has become a bit of a buzz word lately. This is great in many ways, as the more we talk about integrating mindfulness into our daily lives, the more we can increase access to resources (such as meditation apps) that people can benefit from.

However, before we suggest mindfulness as a resource for everyone, it is important to clarify what mindfulness is and is not.

Many people have the following expectations about mindfulness:

• “It will help me feel calm and relaxed”

• “When I'm mindful, I should be able to clear my thoughts”

• “If I can't clear my head completely, I'm doing it wrong”

• “I'll feel focused afterwards and will be productive for the rest of the day”

• “I'll feel happier”

These thoughts are all nice in theory. However, what are some problems with having these expectations about mindfulness?

For one, if we believe that we are doing it wrong, then it makes sense we may want to stop! This is a limiting belief to hold and does not allow much room for acceptance and growth. Instead, let's talk about how Jon Kabat-Zinn, the pioneer of Western mindfulness, defines mindfulness:

“Paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally”

Mindfulness as a practice that takes time, just as it takes time to develop a muscle with exercise. As humans, we are always going to have thoughts in our heads. The goal of mindfulness or meditation is not to eliminate our thoughts, rather to work towards noticing thoughts when they arise and choosing to reorient our attention to what we are doing. With mindfulness, we learn how to distance ourselves from our thoughts and cultivate a less judgmental attitude when they arise. As such, you may even notice yourself feeling more anxious, frustrated, etc. while practicing mindfulness. There may be an urge to distract ourselves from how we are feeling, however the more we can create space for our emotional experience, the more control we can then have over what behaviors to implement.

So, what are some of the benefits of mindfulness?

• Helps us become more present in our daily lives

• Allows us to recognize difficult thoughts and emotions

• Help us see our thoughts as passing rather than powerful truths

• Can disengage from the autopilot

• Become less reactive and judgmental and more objective

• Practice self compassion

There are many ways to practice mindfulness. Many of us have been taught that to practice mindfulness, you have to close your eyes and meditate. For some, this practice works great. There are many different types of meditation, from guided meditations on apps or Youtube, to breathing meditations (such as 4-7-8 or square breathing) to progressive muscle relaxation and more.

However, meditation is just one type of mindfulness! If meditating is not for you, that is perfectly okay. For instance, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 is a great practice where we incorporate all of our senses and center ourselves. This involves noticing 5 things you can see, 4 things you can hear, 3 things you can touch, 2 things you can smell and one thing you taste (if you don’t notice all of these things, you can create sounds to notice or pick up things to smell/taste). Another option is to think of a rainbow and notice sights around you that have each color. These are helpful practices to get out of our heads and into the present moment.

Mindfulness can also be integrated more regularly into daily life. For instance, we can choose to be mindful when we do basic activities, such as washing dishes, showering, or driving a car. In this way, we can phase out of auto-pilot during more mundane activities and tune into what’s happening internally (thoughts, physical sensations, emotions) or externally (smells, sounds, etc.) during these moments in our day.

I could go on and on about the benefits of mindfulness. I would love to hear from you- how have you found ways for mindfulness to be helpful? Do you have any other mindfulness exercises that you'd be willing to share?