Living in the moment and focusing on the ‘now’ can be tricky. It’s natural for us to spend extra time wondering about the future or even thinking about the things we couldn’t change in the past. While it’s natural, you shouldn’t allow yourself it to miss the present.
You can train yourself to focus on the present. You can become aware of what’s happening around you, and within you. You will be able to look at your environment, thoughts, and feelings without judgment. This is what we call mindfulness.
Mindfulness can be meditating in a quiet space, where you would focus on your breathing and what you feel. When your mind wanders to the things you need to worry about, you focus on bringing yourself back to the moment. However, mindfulness can also be incorporated into everyday life, even when interacting with others.
Why Should We Practise Mindfulness?
Mediation has deep roots in Buddhism, but almost all religions have some type of prayer or meditation that helps with living in the moment. The practice of mindfulness is still making its way into modern medicine, with its positive effects on both physical and mental health.
Stress is one of the biggest challenges in our lives, and not many of us know how to deal with it effectively. This is where mindfulness comes in. Having present-moment awareness reduces stress significantly by helping you cope with these feelings rather than avoiding them altogether. Mindfulness also enables you to deal with your emotions, allowing you to cope with stress.
With emotional regulation being aware of our feelings and environment, mindfulness also helps the symptoms of anxiety and depression. While it may not be the only solution to these problems, it benefits your regimen.
Mindfulness allows you to take a step back from your negative emotions and accept them rather than fight them. It can also help to reduce suicidal thoughts and other harmful behaviors.
Mindfulness improves your general health, too! You would be surprised at how powerful our mind can be and how we can use the tool of mindfulness to physically feel better. Besides using our minds, mindfulness encourages us to get regular check-ups, be safe, and be more active.
Mindfulness also helps with your blood pressure, especially if you are learning to be non-reactive, and supports heart health, as you would be exercising more and not smoking as much.
Living in the moment does not have benefits catered only to adults or the elderly. This can help even children and students deal with life’s challenges in a calmer, more constructive manner. This will help them excel in school, work, social activities, and much more on buz business.
How to Practise Mindfulness
Start with waking up with a purpose. Setting an intention in your mind is your motivation for the rest of the day and really sets out what type of day you’re going to have. Our unconscious mind is responsible for most of these decisions, so setting an intention helps your conscious mind align with your unconscious one.
Set out your intention before checking your phone, and sit up against a chair or your bed. You can say something like, ‘I will be kinder to myself today.’
Every day, our mind is constantly working, signaling extremely fast to things we need to do. While this is already wired in, mindfulness is the complete opposite of the fast lane. Instead of running on autopilot, you start controlling your functions. The more you do this, the stronger your control gets.
Shifting your brain into the driver’s seat is not easy, but with time, you can do it. You can take a deep breath every time you want to do something, such as answering the phone or walking to certain rooms. This kind of pattern can help strengthen your control.
Most importantly, be kind to your wandering mind. While we may want to be more present, it is not an overnight task. It takes time and technique to compress our chaotic thoughts back into the moment and deal with them. Start slowly, don’t obsess, and just come back when you feel yourself slipping.
