"Changing your words changes your thoughts, ultimately changing your life!"

What is Mindfulness Practice

Greetings! If you have arrived here with the desire to understand and dive into mindfulness, then have come to the right place! I am here to guide you gently along the way.

Let's start at the root. Mindfulness, at its core, is the process of bringing your attention to the present moment. It's about living in the now, truthfully embracing the moment's experiences, feelings, and thoughts without judgment and fear. So, welcome to what is mindfulness practice.

Mindfulness

Embracing mindfulness practices helps you build a buffer against the chaos that life often throws us. Joining in on mindfulness training enables you to understand and handle stress, fear, and anxiety more effectively.

It helps foster emotional resilience, deepen your sense of self, and enhance our overall well-being. If mindfulness were a flower, its petals would encompass peace, focus, stability, and self-awareness.

Remember this: if you are struggling with anxiety, you are overly concerned with future events. If you are having feelings of sadness and regret, you are living in the past. Living in the present moment helps to melt away anxiety, sadness, and regrets.

The Benefits of Mindfulness

Mindful Flower

Are you feeling curious about the benefits of mindfulness? Let's sow the seeds of mindfulness into your daily life starting now. The beauty of mindfulness is that there's no right or wrong way to practice it. The key is to practice it. Here are some mindful practices you can integrate into your daily routine. You will find some that feel better to you than others…so go with those.

Let's Start with Breathing

We all breathe, but how often do we consciously focus on our breath? In my experience, rarely at best. Breath-focused mindfulness or mindful breathing is as simple as focusing on each inhale and exhale.

It can be done anytime, anywhere. Try this way and see what you think: inhale the future, exhale the past, and let the breath anchor you in the present moment. I've found this to be very calming and grounding.

How to Really Feel Your Outside Self

Mindful Nature

Feel your outside environment, like the breeze on your face and the temperature. Hear the sounds like birds singing and leaves rustling in the wind, and take in the sights. Feel the different sensations on your skin, even the texture and weight of your clothing. Are you sitting or standing? Feel the ground beneath your feet, the chair that supports you.

Now to Really Feel Your Inside Self

Now, feel within your body the breath entering and leaving your lungs. Feel your chest and belly rise and fall with each breath. Finally, notice any thoughts or emotions passing through your mind and heart. For now, only take notice of everything without holding on to it, labeling it, or judging it.

Once you get started in this practice, you'll find many opportunities to be mindful by tuning into your physical, mental, and emotional experiences. My Qigong teacher calls this 'becoming aware of Awareness.'

What is Mindfulness Practice: Body Scanning 

When you look into what is mindfulness practice you'll want to check out different body scanning techniques. Body scanning is a technique where you move your attention gradually through different areas of your body, from your head to your toes, noticing any sensation or even lack of it.

I use a modified version of body scanning to relax. I start with the muscles at my collar bones and imagine a slow melting of my muscles downward until I reach my feet and then let it continue into the ground. Here, you learn how to relax your body and calm your mind.

Eat with Mindfulness

Savour every bite of your meal. Pay attention to the flavors, the textures, and the smell. This technique is known as mindful eating, and it not only enhances the joy of eating but also helps develop a healthier relationship with food. Plus, it offers time to slow down in this fast-paced world and helps us appreciate the small things. You learn how to practice gratitude.

How to Practice Mindful Listening

Mindful Enjoy Your Day

Mindful listening is another technique you want to acquire when looking into what is mindfulness practice. You focus your attention on the sounds around you and even the silence in between the sounds. It could be the chirping of birds, the rustle of leaves, the waves on the beach, or the rhythm of rain.

It's about hearing the world around you. Notice the difference between the sounds of the world waking up or going to sleep and the diverse symphonies of life playing in stereo around you.

When I was first investigating what is mindfulness practice I stumbled across it by accident.

One of my more memorable experiences came when I was recovering from a broken leg. I had trouble sleeping, so I got up around 4:30 one morning. It was late spring and very pleasant outside. I made some coffee, went outside, and sat in one of the chairs.

I was enjoying the silence of the early hours. About 15 minutes later, I heard one lone bird let out a single chirp or note. Then, it was silent until it chirped again slowly at first.

That went on for about five minutes, and then another bird answered with its unique note. They chirped back and forth for a few minutes until a third and fourth joined in. Within a half hour of the first single chirp, dozens of bird songs were happening.

By about 5:20 a.m., a complete symphony was happening. It seemed to grow in intensity until it became a crescendo of sound. It was exhilarating to me.

Apply Mindfulness to Your Ordinary Routines

Extend what is mindfulness practice to your routine chores, too. Washing dishes, doing laundry, brushing your teeth, making your bed, walking, or cleaning can all become mindful actions if you are fully present in them and observant of the sensations they bring.

Mindfulness in Your Movement

Mindfulness Walking

Embrace mindfulness as you move. For example, flow through your yoga or tai chi poses with full attention to your body, balance, breath, and how they align. Walking or dancing mindfully, in which you're wholly absorbed in your movements, can bring great peace, calmness, and physical and psychological wellness.

Meditation is Often the First Thing that Comes to Mind

Meditation is often the first thing that comes to mind when we discuss mindfulness. It's an explicit form of training your mind to focus, calm, and stay rooted in the present. Guided mindfulness meditations can be an excellent start for beginners. Practices such as Qigong standing meditation work well for me.

I was amazed at how many fantastic apps there are available on mindfulness. Offering guided sessions on mindfulness meditation, breathing exercises, and courses to cultivate mindfulness in all aspects of life. As you upgrade your life, remember that the key lies in practicing and infusing mindfulness into every thread of your life. It is your action AND your thoughts that upgrade you.

Share the Sunlight in Your Life

Mindful Dandelion

Just as we let sunlight seep through windows, let mindfulness penetrate your work culture, relationships, and interactions. A single ripple of mindfulness has the potential to affect our collective consciousness.

Besides practicing mindfulness yourself, share its gifts, perhaps by sharing the techniques that work for you with your family and friends or introducing them to your co-workers. Mindfulness has the power to transform those around you.

Summing it All Up for You

Consistently cultivating mindfulness is the key to positive change in your life and the lives of those you come in contact with. A few minutes of mindful breathing daily, a weekly mindful walking session, or simply pausing and being present several times daily can help solidify this practice.

Have patience and show kindness to yourself in this journey. Remember, this is not a race or competition. Every small step toward mindfulness and every second of practicing awareness counts. Celebrate those incredible flashes of living in the here and now. In my experience, it's like being exposed to moments of true perfection. The world is in synch.

Walking this path, your understanding of diverse phases of mindfulness like Mindfulness Techniques, Mindful Breathing, Mindfulness Exercises, and Present Moment Awareness will deepen. Mindfulness isn't a one-day exploration but a satisfying lifelong journey.

To help you remember the crux of it all, consider this simple quote: Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn't more complicated than that. Now, adjust the lens of your perception, my fellow mindfulness practitioner. Shift your focus to the now, and view your existence with new eyes.

In the ebb and flow of life, ride the wave of mindfulness. When embraced, it acts as the rudder guiding you through the turbulent ocean of life, leading to an island of peace. As the saying goes, "The present moment is filled with joy and happiness." If you are attentive, you will feel it.

Remember this: each moment you're mindful, you're alive beyond time constraints, which is where you want to perceive life. Take a plunge into these moments of existence. Witness, as you discover, there's incredible beauty in this mundane world. There's magic in the now.

And finally, let's meet more often here, at this crossroad of learning and exploring mindfulness. Let's unravel how to weave mindfulness into the fabric of our daily lives, one thread at a time. May this guide accompany you as you embark on your mindful journey, opening doors to a world where each moment brims with life. May your life be filled with the miracles of simply being.

I love reading and researching subjects like mindfulness, but I've found one thing to be true. You can read and study mindfulness to your heart's content, but until you jump in and apply mindfulness practices to your life, little change will happen. So begin now, and just do it!

Return to the power of self talk.

"Think like Spring; always embrace renewal and growth."