Stress, obligations, a hectic routine, too many worries… all this results in restlessness and emotional instability that threatens our mental health. To do this, there are different strategies that help to regain calm. Doing sports, taking a walk in nature, listening to relaxing music or reading are some of them.
But if there is a technique that will undoubtedly help you achieve a state of mental peace, it is mindfulness. It consists of adopting full awareness of the present moment, letting intrusive thoughts, ruminations and obsessions pass through your head without settling in it, so that you do not judge or feed them back. You just have to be in the here and now.
This helps you to enjoy every moment more, but also to reduce anxiety, stress and silence certain worries that often haunt us without our being able to control them. Mindfulness bears many similarities with meditation, in that it seeks to clear our minds and only pay attention to the stimuli that surround us in the present. However, while meditation is practiced at certain times of the day, mindfulness is committed to maintaining full awareness at all times of the day. Precisely for this reason it can be more difficult and here we are going to give you some tips to achieve it.
The first step is to start small. Look for specific moments in your day to try to put mindfulness into practice. Sit in a comfortable and quiet place and spend about three minutes focusing solely on the sensory sensations you are receiving. The sounds you hear, the touch of the clothes you wear, the smell you perceive…
During this practice, let the thoughts pass without delving into them. As if it were background music in a store. You only think about the present. As you manage to maintain concentration, you can extend the duration of these meditations.
Another very helpful way to achieve mindfulness is to focus on your breaths. This way you will relax and focus only on how the air enters and leaves your lungs, without thinking about anything else. You can count the seconds it takes to breathe in and out, and put a hand on your chest or abdomen to feel how it rises and falls.
There are certain routine day-to-day activities in which our head tends to unleash thoughts without control and we disconnect from what we are doing, putting on automatic pilot. For example, while driving, washing dishes, or taking a shower. Take advantage of these moments to practice mindfulness. Focus on the foam while you scrub the dishes, on the smell of your shampoo, the rubbing of your hands on your hair, how the water falls on your body…
Remember to focus at all times on the present, feeling mind and body as one, without letting your head escape into meaningless thoughts or worries in advance.
