More Mindfulness Exercises

In my previous post, How to be mindful, I described a mindful breathing exercise.  Now I want to share with you more mindfulness exercises.

1. Mindful Observation

Choose a natural object, plant, flower or cloud in the sky.  Simply focus solely on it for a minute or two.  Visually explore it and allow yourself to be consumed by its presence.

2. Mindful Listening

Listen to a piece of music you have never heard before.  You could re-turn your radio to a new station or download a new track to your ipod.  The idea is to listen, to become fully entwined within the composition without preconception or judgement of the genre, artist, lyrics or instrumentation.

3. Mindful Appreciation

The point of this exercise is to simply give thanks and appreciate the seemingly insignificant things in life; the things that support your existence but rarely get a second thought in our desire for bigger and better things.  All you have to do is notice 5 things in your daily life that go unappreciated.

Once you have your 5 things, then consider

  • the benefit they bring to your life and the lives of others
  • what life would be like without these things

With regular practice of mindfulness services, rather than being on autopilot, we keep our mind rooted in the present moment and deal with life’s challenges in a clear-minded & calm way.

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    So if mindfulness is doesn't requires lots of effort, and its really beneficial, why aren't we all doing it? While exploring a new city is naturally interesting, we rarely have the same enthusiasm for brushing our teeth, loading the washing machine or my commute.  So if you are like me, these are just some of the activities that I do on a regular basis that I have labelled "boring" and I go into autopilot (mindlessness). So the simplest way to practice mindfulness is to bring awareness to the daily activities you consider "boring". Another great way time to practice mindfulness is while you wait.  We are all so short of time that waiting is a huge source of frustration, whether its waiting for a train to turn up, waiting in line or being stuck in traffic.  These are all ideal times to just be mindful.  You can do this by focusing on your breathing and left everything else just be.  Start by breathing in and out slowly - one cycle should last for approximately 6 seconds.  Breath in through your nose and out through your mouth.  Letting your breath flow effortlessly in and out of your body. Our brains respond to short burst of mindfulness, so its ok to keep it short, a few minutes per day.