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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