You do not need to be alone in the middle of the forest or go to a temple in Tibet to find ways to become more mindful. You can achieve a state of mindfulness regardless of your lifestyle or where you reside. Of course, it will take some work and effort, but it is an achievable goal. To fully understand mindfulness, we need to understand what the term means and the benefits of maintaining a mindful practice and why we get distracted in the first place.
What is mindfulness all about
The practice of mindfulness helps maintain a state of awareness and connection to your environment, self, and others. It is about living in purpose and not from a place of automatic reactions. Mindfulness is living your life as fully present as possible without allowing yourself to get stuck on distracting matters such as stress, toxic patterns, or dissociative actions.
Benefits to mindful practices
- Reduces impulsivity – which simply means you do not say or do things that you regret or have to apologize for saying.
- Reinforces healthy patterns– helps you to take care of yourself by forcing you to think before you leap into self-destructive actions such as over-eating, consuming alcohol or drugs, as well as over shopping.
- Mood stabilizer – mindfulness practices do not mean you never feel stress or get upset. As you practice mindfulness, you can manage them when you experience certain moods because living in a state of awareness allows you to quickly recognize emotional triggers, which means you do not let them take over completely.
- Reduces the impact of stress – as you maintain a steady habit of awareness, you can minimize activities that produce stress before they get out of hand. You learn to take time to recharge and revive yourself before things get out of hand.
- Keeps you alert – you do not get easily distracted and remain aware of things as they occur, which allows you to handle incidents as they occur
- Helpful when making critical decisions – you learn to avoid rash decisions because you take your time in evaluating situations
- Useful for keeping calm – a valuable tool for dealing with spontaneous situations and volatile people. You learn ways to select words that have a calming effect on others, reducing tensions, specifically in hostiles situations.
- It helps improve communication skills – you learn to think before you speak, enabling you to be conscious of the tone and language you use with others.
- Reduces anxiety – A useful tool for decreasing negative self-talk that invokes fear and catastrophizing thoughts.
- Insight – you learn more about yourself and others when you are fully alert and aware of things
What makes us disconnect
Many things disconnect us from our true nature, such as painful experiences, excessive stimuli from our environment, and stressful conditions at home or work. Overwhelming events that take their toll on us tends to force us into a dissociative state to avoid burnt-out. We disconnect when we do not know how to effectively cope or remain calm when faced with too many demands; we become automatic and function without much thought. Here is a simple list of what causes mindless behaviors:
- Stress
- Trauma
- Being overwhelmed
- Self-medication – both illicit and non-illicit substance usage
- Not living our true and authentic selves
There are ways to help us regain control and function without losing ourselves or our ability to be mindful.
How to develop a practice of mindfulness
- Journaling – maintaining a journal is an effective way to track patterns and emotional experiences, as well as help in reinforcing mindful thinking
- Meditation – meditation is always a great way to silence the chatter and learn to listen to the inner voice
- Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy – a good therapist who practices Mindful Therapy can be beneficial.
- Positive self-talk – reinforces positive thinking and the impact of old tapes
- Breathing exercises – this help soothe and calm you
- Pause and think – before saying or taking action, think about the impact your actions or words may have
Mindful behaviors will have a tremendous impact on how you view life and your overall well-being. The key is regular practice and patience with your process.
Copyright © 2021 R. Castro
Resources
https://www.mindful.org/what-is-mindfulness/
https://www.verywellmind.com/mindfulness-meditation-88369
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapy-types/mindfulness-based-cognitive-therapy
5-minute guided meditation
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