3 Simple Mindful Techniques to Deepen Your Relationship With Life

How to focus on the present moment to experience the peace in everyday life.

We all are in quest for a happy living.

People work more than half of their lives towards a comfortable life. The technology that we have in our hands was inaccessible to the grandest of ancient kings. Still, it doesn’t make us a satisfied generation. Wealth, fame, or extra time at hand are no longer a benchmark for a happy life.

In this fast-paced life of deadlines, we are in a constant state of anxiety. Often most people postpone living their lives to the fullest. The goal is always in the future. But life is slipping by every moment.

The mind wanders in the past and worries about the future. Mindfulness pulls back your attention. It focuses on the present moment.

Mindfulness ≠ Meditation.

Many confuse meditation with mindfulness. Both are different. Meditation is an emptiness that is beyond time or any technique, whereas mindfulness concentrates on the present. Mindfulness can help you prepare for meditation. Meditation happens beyond any methods.

The stillness, the silence that comes after any method, is actual meditation. In contrast, mindfulness is to focus entirely on the current activity. Nobody requires a spiritual routine for practicing mindfulness. In everyday activities, be aware of your every action — that is mindfulness.

You don’t need to have a spiritual mindset. There are no limitations to practicing mindfulness. Anybody and everybody can do it.

Why Should You Practice Mindfulness?

Healthy living is one of the significant components of happy living. UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center and other scientific studies have recognized many benefits of mindfulness:

1. Increases emotional well-being by decreasing anxiety, depression, rumination, decreased emotional reactivity.
2. Improves physical health: Mindfulness increases the quality of sleep and improves the immune system. It also decreases blood pressure. When you mindfully eat, you build a relationship with food and promote healthy eating habits.
3. In Business Settings: Promotes communication and work performance. It increases mental clarity and focus.
4. In Educational Settings: Increases socio-emotional skills, diminishes stress and burnout.
5. Shifts perception of Time: Mindful people are better at recognizing the uniqueness of moments. It helps in perception where time slows down. When fully immersed in the present, they enjoy life more.

#1. Use Your Five Senses to Practice Mindfulness.

Most of the time, we are unaware of what we see, hear, touch, smell, or taste. Utilize these five senses to be in the present moment. Eat and drink consciously. Walk with awareness. Touch and feel with total focus. Be present with any one of your senses, and you can feel the difference.

Next time when you eat something, remove all distractions. Be conscious while eating.

• Feel the food in your hands.
• Devour by its smell.
• Feel its touch on your lips and inside the mouth. Feel its warmth.
• Chew with closed eyes and be aware of the teeth grinding the food.
• See your swallowing pattern.
• Do this with each bite.

It takes time, but the results are excellent. It increases the taste of food, and your digestion becomes healthy. Extend this mindfulness in your other areas of life — like walking, doing dishes, or even while kissing or making love.

#2. Dive into this Easy Mindfulness Technique to Relax you Instantly.

The mindfulness technique is an effective way to reduce stress. All you require is a quiet spot and 10 minutes to do this.

1. Find a secluded place and sit comfortably in a chair.
2. Now take your attention to whatever you see. Watch everything. It can be a wall, or window, or sky, birds, anything. Focus on watching all the things. Do not make a mental note of anything. Observe everything for 2 minutes.
3. Now close your eyes and listen. Listen to the sounds that are coming. It may be the sound of the fan, air conditioner, or birds, animals, horns, or your breath. Listen to everything from close to distant noises. Just listen for another 2 minutes.
4. Now shift your focus to feel. Feel the air blowing through your face, hands, or arms. If you can’t perceive the air or wind, feel the breath for the next 2 minutes.
5. Now relax for a few minutes with closed eyes.

This meditation is simple, and you can do it anywhere. It instantly grounds and relaxes you.

#3. Transform Your Daily Inner Conflicts Into Peace With Mindfulness.

The underlying cause of any unpleasant emotional outburst is fear. It may be fear of judgment, abandonment, disapproval, suppression, or expectations.

My family instilled the fear of my father’s disapproval throughout my life. It didn’t matter if I denied the existence of that fear or tried to be not afraid of him. That anxiety always made itself visible in any provoked situation between us.

A few months back, while we were having lunch, he screamed at me for no reason. But instead of palpating thunderous heartbeats, only peace was there. I calmly replied and continued to have lunch. His anger immediately crashed, as there was nothing to claw on. It was possible because of my brutal truthfulness with myself and my commitment to be free from any other’s reaction. Practicing mindfulness helped me a lot.

Scientific trials have proved that mindfulness helps in improving inner peace. But while dealing with long-standing internal conflicts, you may slip back into your old automated response.

Steps to transmute your negative emotions into peace.

• Next time when you are having a bad day — STOP doing everything. Take a break.
• Grab a solitary room. Be alone with yourself.
• Be aware of your dense feelings weighing your heart down.
• Take your attention towards your breath. Breathe deeply.
• Instead of running away, be fully present with that emotion and feeling. Like you would be with your worried friend, be with yourself thoroughly for that moment.
• Let all your emotions out. Cry if you want to. Let the tears beat the drum roll but in aloneness. Punch in the air, kick the space, empty the abuses in that secluded place. Do this till it exhausts you completely.
• Do not impede the flow of your feelings by your judgments. Let them flow through you.
• Don’t be in any haste to judge. If you need to decide, take some time out to let your mind be calm again. Deal with your heaviness in the heart first. Only when it calms down, you decide.

No doubt, it is going to create a great rift inside your mind. You may feel like a war is going on inside, tearing you apart in pieces. Be courageous. Remain steady. Don’t fight it with other thoughts, or try to reason or counter them.

The mind is a complex identity; it creates a war within a war. Don’t fuel it with more thoughts. Let your emotions flow. Don’t resist them. Gradually, feelings will lose control over you in time. You will then respond responsibly instead of knee jerk reaction.

Be patient in this journey of inner healing. Be gentle with yourself. Lovingly guide the most important person in your life, i.e., ‘You.’ If you slip back into old patterns, start again from where you left.

Takeaways:

Past and future are not in your hands. Don’t drag the weight of dead into your beautiful future. Be fully present in this ‘Now.’ Mindfulness relaxes your body and mind. The perception of time slows down—the quality of life increases.

Connect with your peaceful self with these simple techniques. You can do these techniques during emotional turmoil and also in your daily routine. Explore the beauty of everyday life with mindful living. Be free of the clutches of the emotional burden. Bask in the glory of the present moment.

With mindfulness, you can establish yourself in the present in order to touch the wonders of life that are available in that moment. — Thich Nhat Hanh

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