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Mindfulness or Mind-with-less-mess!
Let me ask you, just thinking about what is going around you, focusing on every single moment of your surrounding, and asking why is it happening, is it mindfulness or meditation?
For sure, people may confuse themselves between mindfulness and meditation. Unlike how it seems, both are important and different from each other, but sometimes they do overlap which is why it confuses people on the concepts and how to practice them at times.
Mindfulness and Meditation
Mindfulness refers to a mental state of awareness. It is to be stable in a moment and accept (observing, not interpreting /attaching with) your thoughts, your emotions, your surroundings, your bodily sensations, and other present moments.
Sometimes what happens is that we get lost in our thoughts or even entangled at most times. Mindfulness is where you can train yourself to calm or slow down and be aware of yourself.
Meditation is a broad practice that involves mindfulness and other techniques to control yourself. It is important to obtain control over your body, mind, and self.
Benefits of Mindfulness
Before starting with any practice everyone wants to know what the possible positive outcomes of that practice be. That's why let us see the benefits of Mindfulness-
Emotional stability - When you are aware of your emotions, your regulation over them will be high. You can easily identify which emotion is going to be harsh/ bad for you, hence your mind tries to give less attention to those emotions.
Bring Adaptability and less reactivity to triggers - We all know, that in certain situations, impulsive reactions can be problematic. Mindfulness saves you from that by bringing awareness to your situation and allows you to respond properly.
Practicing Mindfulness
For some, practicing mindfulness is not as effective because of not being able to be open to trying something or even trying to give attention to the present moment. Mindfulness can look like different things, such as being mindful about eating, walking, and daily activities such as chores.
A classic example is washing dishes. As silly as it sounds, close your eyes and just imagine! It is about using the senses: Touch, Smell, Hearing, Taste, and Sight. The senses mindfulness practice helps us be aware of the experience we are engaged in at the present moment which gives us a chance to slow down and enhance the moment. Going back to washing dishes – How is the water running down your hand? Is the water hot or cold? How does the soapy water feel running down the dishes? Is it slippery?
Let’s think of another example: stepping outside and asking these questions – What does the air smell like? What are some background sounds? What does the temperature feel like?
The purpose of these exercises using your senses is to keep yourself in the present and maximize your experience in the present moment, as we say to be grounded. There are different exercises, such as breathing, mindful eating, and senses, that you can all explore and do anytime and anywhere.
There are many types of mindfulness exercises out there, and one of the things to understand is to be open and clear before beginning these exercises to effectively practice and gain the maximum experience in them.
A helpful resource to practice and explore some mindfulness exercises –
Have you tried practicing mindfulness? What are the benefits that you have experienced? Let us know in the comments.
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