What Is Mindfulness and How To Support It as a Habit
By: Patrice Flanagan-Morris, LCSW
Recently, more and more people have been reaching out and expressing that they have heard of mindfulness or have tried meditation but they don’t “get it.” Mindfulness is a challenging concept, especially today, where multitasking and burning the candles at both ends is validated and encouraged.
This graphic was posted on my Instagram and Facebook pages to describe the purpose of mindfulness and am diving deeper into the concepts.
Mindfulness is not simply meditating every day, it is a practice of intentional awareness of each moment throughout our day. Examples can be, taking a few seconds to smell the soap as you are washing your hands, taking one minute to step back and breathe when noticing you are overwhelmed, and feeling the joy radiate through your body when another person smiles at you.
These moments in our lives are often underrated and overlooked. We miss multiple opportunities each day to cultivate happiness and joy in our lives. When we engage in mindfulness practices daily, bringing simple awareness and intention to our thought and actions we create a greater understanding of ourselves, what sets us off and brings us joy. We can problem-solve more effectively because we slow ourselves down, and take each moment for what it is.
Daily mindfulness practice also allows us to know that whatever is happening that it will pass. The joy, sadness, anger, happiness, shame, and guilt will come and go. We can soak in the moments that we feel the pleasant and ride the wave through the unpleasant. I strongly urge you to practice some daily mindfulness, here are some tips to do so:
Integrating Mindfulness Into Your Day
I strongly urge you to consider integrating some mindfulness practices in your day by day, here are some examples:
Taking five minutes to focus on your breath
Take one meal of your day uninterrupted and simply taste and take in the food you are eating
Doorway intentions – when you walk through a doorway set your intention on how you want to show up there
Smelling the soap as you wash your hands or dishes
Notice the warmth of the water as you shower