3 Mindfulness Exercises to lower Anxiety and Stress
Mindfulness Exercises
These 3 simple exercises will help you bring Mindfulness into your days. They don’t take much effort and if you practice them, you will start cultivating mindfulness and introducing moments of peace in your busy days
Choose An Activity
Choose a basic activity that you will do in the next little while. For example I will have a snack, wash my hands or put my shoes on. As you perform this activity, slow down your pace and keep your attention on what you are doing. Notice what you see, what you can smell and hear at this time. How does it taste (if is a food or drink) and how do you feel as you do it. If you are washing your hands, notice the temperature of the water, how does it feel on your skin, how bubbles form with the soap and what is the posture of your body as you stand there. Use all your senses to connect to your present activity. Just doing things slower and paying attention to what you are doing bring mindfulness to the moment.
Focus On The Activity
When we are rushing through our days, we tend to think about several things at the same time – what we need to do next, what happened before, how are we feeling at this time and other things. Whenever we are not focusing our mind on a specific task with all our attention, our minds wander. Research shows that a wandering mind brings an unhappy mood and is associated with a sense of mild anxiety. On the other hand, when the mind is focused, it creates a calming effect and a sensation of inner peace. As if we knew that it is OK to focus on this activity at this time and we don’t have to worry about anything else at this precise moment. In order to focus on something, the mind needs to shut down other parts and in doing so, the worries also disappear. In order to help keep the attention on one thing, you can describe to your self what you are doing, such as: “I am cleaning” and repeat as you do it or “I am putting my socks on, they feel soft and pleasant on my skin” while you are getting dressed. This self-talk keeps your attention on the present task and helps to create a sense of being grounded and calm as you go through your day.
Bring Your Mind To Present Moment
When you notice that you are feeling anxious because your mind is thinking about the past or the future and is worrying, you can tell yourself to bring your mind back to the present moment. It helps to use the different senses to ground yourself. For example, you can touch the fabric of the sofa where you are sitting and explore the details of its texture, colour, temperature, and the sensation that you feel as your body sits there. Or you can focus on one element that you can see and look at it as if you have never seen it before, with the eyes of a child that is discovering something new. You may notice details that you have never seen before.
All these exercises are ways to bring mindfulness into your days and create moments of inner peace that will replace the stress and anxiety of the automatic pilot lifestyle.
Hope you enjoy these mindfulness exercises!
Additional Reading on mindfulness exercises:
- Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy
- Mindful Eating
- anxiety in children
- Mindfulness Meditation
- Mindfulness For Stress
- Anxiety Disorders
