You’ll see it pop up in magazines more and more: golden tips and advice for a mindful life. Mindfulness is the word that has kept us busy for the past few years, how could it not? We live in a society that keeps putting expectations on our shoulders causing our levels of stress to climb and climb. Depressions, burn-outs, sickness… unfortunately more and more people have to deal with these on a daily basis. The solution? Mindfulness, at least if you can believe the gossip! It’s the solution for dealing with stress allowing you to enjoy life to the fullest. Now that we’re going through September again, our schedules get filled up. A stressful period that could use some mindfulness. But what exactly is it, what does it do and how do you get going with it?
What is mindfulness?
The fact is we run on auto pilot for a lot of the time. We have specific routines and tend not to think too much about what we’re doing. This means life will pass us by and we forget to live in the moment. That why a lot of people get into mindfulness: it’s a way of truly living ‘in the moment’. You’ll focus your full attention on yourself, your surroundings and the events that occur. This is a way to teach you to live a more conscious and intense life.
When we’re talking about mindfulness we tend to think of yoga, exercises and meditation. If you spend a couple of minutes looking around on the internet you’ll instantly come across different websites where certain services can be bought. Such as courses that take to long and takes up several weeks. Ain’t nobody got time for that. But let’s be honest: mindfulness doesn’t always need to be yoga or meditation, with a couple of simple steps you too can integrate mindfulness in your daily life! And I promise it’ll be enough for you to start leading a more conscious life!
Integrating mindfulness into your life
Mindfulness can be applied to everyday life. And it truly is the little things that take you a long way. During tiles of burn-outs and depressions it’s crucial to stop and think about your own feelings and experiences. And hey, if you’re feeling a little down it’s more than okay to hit the pause button. There are a couple of simple things I can do to try and live more consciously:
1. Coffee and a moment to think
Nothing can beat a hot cup of coffee, especially now Fall is outside of the door. I lead a busy life and all of my passion and energy is poured into SELF, but I think it’s important to take some me-time now and again. So when I’m sipping on my daily cup of coffee I reflect on my feelings and wonder ‘how am I doing really’ and ‘what things have I done for myself today?’ It doesn’t always have to be yoga! These things can teach you about yourself and will stop you from forgetting about yourself. Actually me-time should be on top of your priority list, because the happier you are, the more energy you can put back into your work and family.
2. Ending the day on a positive note
Another way to live consciously is to reflect on your day. The perfect moment for this is right before crawling into your warm and comfy bed, think about what made you thankful throughout the day. Things that made you truly happy! And this can be literally anything: a joke, a hug, a walk with your pet or a walk on your own through the forest. Ending the day with a positive note will make you more conscious. Because that one joke, or lovely cup of coffee are simple things that we don’t consider! Beautiful moments like these just fly right by us… This can’t be the point of life.
So let’s all try to enjoy some more and live a conscious life!
Xx Isabelle
