As mindfulness becomes more mainstream, many people still wonder what it is and how to do it.
Mindfulness is simply being present to whatever is in your life in the moment and noticing it without judgment. While being present is certainly a challenge with all the constant distractions around you, tugging for your attention, the ‘without judgment’ part is equally as challenging.
Judging doesn’t only mean negative connotations. It means labeling of any kind. Good or bad, happy or sad, loving or fearful.
How Do You Practice Mindfulness?
Is it like meditating? Do I need anything to make me mindful?
You can be caught up in your busyness and stress then notice that you’re caught up. Without putting yourself down (labeling), you can accept it and ask, “What am I going to do about it?” Maybe close your eyes and take a deep breath. Maybe take a walk and come back to your work more centered. Maybe you remain in your busyness.
The difference with mindfulness is that each choice is a conscious one. You don’t mindlessly react. You make a mindful choice.
Mindfulness can also help you to understand why you do what you do. If you’re trying to change a habit, mindfulness is key. You can’t change what you don’t notice.
With mindfulness, you can pause to notice how you feel, what you’ve been experiencing lately, your energy level, your emotions, your thoughts. You can stop to see how all of that feeds the habit you’re trying to change. It can be almost impossible to change a habit if you don’t understand and change your triggers for the habit.
Without a mindful pause, you don’t give yourself the opportunity to make a different choice. You simply react.
A Daily Practice
Mindfulness isn’t like a lightbulb that you suddenly turn on and your life changes. It’s a daily practice, like gratitude, that doesn’t seem to do much at first. But, if you stick with it on a regular basis, you’ll realize one day how far you’ve come, how much your life has changed for the better.
Mindfulness has changed every aspect of my life: my health, relationships, finances, lifestyle and more.
Being more mindful of what I eat, when and where I eat it, how much, how it tastes, how it makes me feel afterward helps me to make small adjustments that have allowed my body, mind and emotional state to become healthier and happier.
Being more mindful of what I say and do with others has improved my relationships. When I got tired of repeating the same arguments with my husband, I used the power of the pause and mindfulness to experiment and find new ways of interacting. I consciously made different choices, sticking with what worked and dumping what didn’t. My husband and I can now communicate (and disagree) in a much more effective way that ultimately leads to a great outcome instead of the old dead end.
Being more mindful of how and when I spend money has helped me to stop spending that was more compensatory and focus on spending in alignment with my values. I need much less stuff than I used to think. My gratitude practice reminds me that I have quite enough, all of which I’m grateful for.
Being more mindful of my lifestyle choices has helped me to question common societal beliefs that simply don’t work for me or my family. We make choices based on our values and what’s important to us, not what “everyone” does. Our “alternative” lifestyle is perfect for us.
The Magic of Acceptance
Over time, being present to what is without judging it can lead to acceptance of what is without resisting it.
We all want people to act a certain way. We want things to go our way. We think we can control so much more than we actually can. When things don’t go our way, we resist the way things are going. We waste a lot of energy pushing and prodding, trying to control what we can’t control, resisting.
What you resist persists.
Rather than resisting what’s already happening, you can accept what’s happening, and ask yourself (the only thing you can control), “What am I going to do about it?” What can you do that’s within your control? Remember that other people are not in your control.
Accepting doesn’t mean being a doormat. It means taking responsibility for your thoughts and actions given what’s already present.
Acceptance is empowering. It removes the blaming and shifting of responsibility that makes it impossible for you to do anything about the situation.
With acceptance, you take responsibility for what you’ll do next to address the situation. It takes you out of the stewing and brooding and into action that can make a difference.
Sharing Mindfulness – My Books & Top Resources
In my latest book, The Mindful Guide to the Law of Attraction, I explain the aspects of mindfulness and the concepts behind the law of attraction, removing any sense of “woo woo,” and presenting it all in a practical framework that can be used by anyone to improve their life.
The book includes a collection of 45 meditations that help you get clear on what you want, ensuring that your energies are focused on what is right for you so you can attract more of what you want into your life.
The biggest secret I have learned throughout my own personal development journey is that the power to change our outcomes, to find a sense of inner peace, is inside of us right now. My goal in writing this book is to give you the tools to shine a light on what has been hidden inside you, so that you can achieve what you have been seeking. The meditations ground the tough work of your inner practice, and in the end, help you experience new realities in health, wealth, and matters of the heart. You can initiate change from the inside out.
You can find this book at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and Indigo.
In The Joy of Now Journal: Mindfulness in Five Minutes a Day there are quotes and prompts that will get you thinking in more mindful ways. You can spend five minutes each day seeing your world and all its splendor in a new light.
The book is beautifully and colorfully illustrated by Katie Jennings Campbell.
Here’s the introduction:
Do more. Be more. Accumulate more. That’s the mistaken path we often try to take toward happiness. But pure joy is right here, right now, waiting for you through the practice of mindfulness.
What is mindfulness? It’s simply slowing down enough to notice, without judgment, all the little things inside and around you that are occurring in the present moment. And it can be practiced by anyone, at any time, to help you live life to the fullest.
The Joy of Now is your guide along your journey into mindfulness. With inspiration and simple exercises on every page, you’ll awaken to opportunities for joy in every moment of your day – body, mind, spirit, relationships, finances, and career. All it takes is five minutes each day for change that can last a lifetime.
You can find this book at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and Indigo.
Visit my Recommended Resources page where I post the latest list of books, programs, and products that I’ve found to be particularly helpful in growing your mindfulness and meditation practices.
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