Active Mindfulness Practices
Think of ‘active mindfulness’ as building intentional activities into your day that are geared toward growing the mindfulness muscle. Even 10 minutes per day of mindful activity can positively change your brain*….. resulting in being better able to reduce anxiety, relax, focus, feel calmed, ease stress, improve ability to be present with others, etc. I encourage clients to start with 1-3 minutes if 10 minutes seem like a stretch (in our busy lives, it can!). Small steps will lead to bigger steps - and many of these mindfulness activities can be inserted into daily tasks like household chores, exercise and work.
Try a few - don’t worry about being perfect or for how long you engage with any activity. Here’s a list and more description of each below:
Short Guided Meditations
Mindful Walking & Biking
Using Mindfulness Apps on Your Devices
Doing One Task at a Time
Journaling
Yoga (gentle)
Declutter Your Space
Spend Time in Nature
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Body Scan
5-4-3-2-1 Senses Scan
Practice Gratitude
Slow Down A Little….
MORE DESCRIPTIONS
GUIDED
MEDITATIONS
Brief, relaxing guided meditations are an active, very helpful way to teach your brain and body to settle and ease. (options below)
SHORT GUIDED MEDIATIONS
1. Mindfulness Exercises: Mindfulness Exercises Guided Meditations
2. Tara Brach Guided Meditations: Tara Brach Guided Meditations
3. Jack Kornfield Breathing Meditations for Beginners: Jack Kornfield Breathing Meditation for Beginners
-others can be searched for on youtube or various websites and phone apps - take time and sample a few.
MINDFUL WALKING
Take a mindful walk: no headphones or music or calls - feel the ground beneath you under each step, see what’s around you (trees, cars, flowers), hear the sounds on your walk, smell the outdoors.. challenge yourself to see how many of each of these sensory cues you can notice.
USING MINDFULNESS APPS ON DEVICES
Insight Timer is my personal favorite - lots of guided meditations, mindful music, timers, bells, courses… favorite feature is being able to search for meditations by time (1-5 minute, 5-10 minute, etc) and the styling of the app has a calm feel.
Other apps: Calm, Headspace, Chopra, Healthy Minds… and many more. Find your favorite - which one doesn’t matter as long as you use it.
DO ONE TASK AT A TIME
This one is self-explanatory and simple… but so hard to do within today’s world where being super busy and over-scheduled has been normalized. Challenge yourself daily to try and focus on one task or chore at a time.
JOURNALING
This practice deserves its own blog post… and working on that. In the meantime, grab a journal - any journal or notebook or even app on your phone - and write down your thoughts, goals, fears, intentions, notes for your therapist, rants, vents, calming tools, etc. The first (and only) rule of journaling is that there are no rules to journaling. Just start writing.
GENTLE YOGA
Take a gentle yoga class or practice in your home. There are so many types of yoga to explore and find what works best for you. A huge component of yoga is breath awareness - and breath awareness plus being connected to your body lead to mindfulness. Yoga does not have to include handstands nor any kind of movement you don’t feel comfortable with. Gentle and restorative yoga is a great place to start. Develop a yoga / stretching / breathing routine you’re able to practice in your own home daily.
DECLUTTER YOUR SPACE
This does not mean clean your whole house. Just pick a space - desk, closet, dresser, counter, etc - and clean that area. Declutter and maybe even reorganize with fewer items. Clearing your space helps to clear your mind.
TIME IN NATURE
Get outside… in your yard, on a trail, to the beach, in the mountains or around your neighborhood. Just be in the outdoors and allow yourself to see, hear, smell and feel the natural world around you. Also.. gardening or working in the yard count, too.
PROGRESSIVE MUSCLE RELAXATION
PMR exercises help you to release tension and stress by activating and then deactivating muscle groups in your body. Tensing and then releasing muscles teaches your body and your brain that it’s able to relax and release/calm after experiencing contractions. (videos below)
GUIDES - PROGRESSIVE MUSCLE RELAXATION:
VIDEO OF PMR: Video of PMR guide is here.
PDF GUIDE FOR PMR: Written description of PMR is here.
BODY SCAN PRACTICE
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Body Scan practicing is similar to PMR… but without the tensing action. It involves simply getting into a relaxed position and focusing gentle and compassionate awareness on one body area, then the next and the next, etc.
5-4-3-2-1 SENSES SCAN
Similar to the body scan… but with the senses:
Step 1: Identify 5 things you can see and really take them in.
Step 2: Identify 4 things you can hear (birds, cars, wind, etc)
Step 3: Identify 3 things you can feel (the seat under you, the ground, your keyboard, your pen, etc)
Step 4: Identify 2 things you can smell (coffee, flowers, wind, etc)
Step 5: Identify 1 thing you can taste (if you’re not tasting anything at the moment, think of the last thing you tasted or something you like)
PRACTICE GRATITUDE
Keep a gratitude journal…. try to list daily 5-10 things you are grateful for. They can be as simple as breath, the sun, rain, walking - and they can be similar or the same each day. Content isn’t important - being thankful is. Having a set time of day (morning with coffee, nightly before bed, etc) helps to make this practice a routine.
SLOW DOWN A LITTLE and….
Set an intention for the day to recognize when you’re feeling too rushed or flooded with ‘must do’ thoughts, slow your pace just a little, take a minute to notice what’s going on around you and be curious with how you can shift slightly.
MINDFULNESS BASICS:
Have awareness of what doesn’t serve you in your environment and thoughts (conflicts, worries, negative thoughts, etc).
Notice when your mind is stuck in the past (regret, over-analyzing) or the future (fear, catastrophizing)… and bring it gently back to the present moment and your breath.
Recognize when thoughts come in during an activity - acknowledge (without judgment or analysis) they are there and gently shift them aside until you finish your activity or your short mindful/meditation break. (The grocery list or anxious thought or work worry, etc will still be waiting for you later if you need it back.)
Be curious … try to look at moments of the day from a new angle or with new perspectives - let them unfold.
Best, Jenn
*Research from the NIH on how much daily time on mindfulness can effect change in our brains: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3277272/
**The information presented in this blog is intended for general knowledge and use only. It should not take the place of medical, clinical advice or licensed therapy. To find a licensed practitioner in your area, the Psychology Today Directory is an excellent resource.