According to Mindful.org, “mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.” Mindfulness is a great way to reduce stress, improve concentration, maintain mental health, and can even help improve physical health.
Like most people, I have a pretty busy schedule, and it can seem challenging to make time for practicing mindfulness. However, I have found five easy ways to incorporate mindfulness into my daily routine:
1. Download an app like Headspace and meditate when you first wake-up.
Mindfulness apps like Headspace make mindfulness easy and accessible. Headspace has meditations of various lengths, and many are only three minutes long. Three minutes won’t make or break your morning routine, and starting the morning mindfully will help make the rest of your day much more productive, effective, and enjoyable.
2. Make the first bite of each meal mindful.
Mindful eating is another easy way to incorporate mindfulness into your daily routine. At the first bite of each meal, pay close attention to the smell, taste, texture, sound, and temperature of your food as you’re enjoying it. This can help make the experience more enjoyable, and it also helps keep you in the moment. Instead of spending the entire meal multitasking and trying to respond to emails and do other work, try to devote the first bites of each meal to mindfulness.
3. Set a midday alarm on your phone for one minute of paced breathing.
The middle of the day is often when we start to feel overwhelmed. After a few hours of work or school, the end of the day still seems far away, and it’s easy to start to lose focus. Set an alarm for the middle of your day to devote to one minute of paced breathing. My favorite paced breathing exercise is 4-7-8 breathing. You breathe in through your nose for four seconds, hold your breath for seven seconds, and breathe out through your mouth for eight seconds. You can time this yourself, or apps like Breathe+ can time it for you. Even the busiest schedules can allow for one minute of paced breathing.
4. Devote 1-2 minutes of your shower to mindfulness.
When we’re crunched for time in our morning or evening routines, it’s easy to breeze through showering without taking any time to truly be aware of what is happening in the moment. Instead of rushing through your entire shower, devote 1-2 minutes of it to being mindful. Feel the temperature and texture of the water, and imagine that as the water is dripping off your body, your worries are dripping away along with it. In the grand scheme of things 1-2 minutes is insignificant, however it can make a huge difference in your mental health.
5. Before bed, take five minutes to check in with yourself.
At the end of the day, it’s easy to want to rush to sleep without taking any time to check in with how we are doing. Each night before you go to bed, take a deep breath, and take five minutes to check in with how you feel physically, mentally, and emotionally right now. Not how you felt this morning, not how you want to feel tomorrow, but how you feel right in this moment. We get so fixated on the past and future that we forget to take care of our present selves. By taking five minutes to honor yourself in the present moment, you will be more rested, and will be able to have an even more effective day tomorrow.
So, I challenge you to try these five ways of adding mindfulness into your daily routine. Most of them take less than five minutes, and they will add a wealth of peace into your life.