5 Mindfulness Exercises That Fit Into A Busy Schedule
Simple daily habits that don’t take a lot of time commitment
Practising mindfulness has been proven to increase productivity and efficiency, yet it can be difficult to get into the habit if you are used to keeping yourself busy all day.
I only got into practising mindfulness fairly recently. Although I had read about the long term health the benefits it can bring, the thought of taking time out of my day to “do nothing”, scared me. But even once I had decided to give it a try, I found it tricky to change my daily routine.
I have tried a variety of different exercises, started and stopped, felt like I failed and tried something different. I am still at the start of my journey, but these 5 exercises that I use daily have already helped me to overcome a lot of my anxieties and trauma.
1. Noticing changes while doing regular activities
A lot of the activities we do daily happen on auto-pilot. The daily car journeys, walks or even housework — we are used to doing these activities while our mind is busy thinking about something completely different.
A great start to practising mindfulness is to use these daily activities and try to focus on changes around you. You might be surprised how many things change daily that we are taking for granted. Have the shops re-arranged their show windows? New graffiti appeared overnight? Trees chopped down or lost leaves? Maybe the rubbish that was standing at the kerbside forever has been removed? Has the dress come out of the washing lost colour?
“When you notice new things, you come to see that information is context dependent. In other words, things look different from different perspectives. The more you notice about things that you thought you knew, the more you become aware of everything that you didn’t notice. That uncertainty becomes the rule rather than the exception. Which, in turn, leads us to be in the present, to be mindful.” Ellen Langer Ph.D
2. Treating meditation time like a business meeting
You don’t have to start meditating for hours every day to reap the benefits. The important (and sometimes most challenging) part of meditation is to cultivate a habit and practising it. I would recommend to start with something lightweight, like 10 minutes per day and try different apps and practises to see which work best for you.
I book 15 minutes of meditation in my work calendar. If you have allowed your company access to see your schedule, try naming it something that sounds important: Like 1–2–1, Management update or use an abbreviation no one dares to challenge you on.
The key is to treat this meeting as the most important meeting of the day. It cannot be postponed. Whatever else you have to do can wait, this meeting will help you to be more productive and achieve more later on.
It’s a meeting with the most important person in your life: Yourself.
3. Describing daily experiences and interactions in the head
I have been guilty of not paying enough attention to “the now” many times. At one point I thought I might be suffering from ADHD, as I seemed to lack the ability to focus for longer periods of time and got distracted easily. Especially during daily interactions with my children, for example, I often caught my mind drifting and focusing on everything in my head rather than on the present moment.
What I have found helpful in getting me to focus on the present moment is to try and describe the activities or interactions in my head, as if I was writing about them. With that exercise, it doesn’t matter what or how you are describing a situation or object, all that matters is to keep the mind focused on what is happening at the time.
For example, when I play with my children I might describe how they are sitting, what they are wearing, how old they are and what has changed in the language they use or the way that they speak. I might try to describe their mood or body language as well as the intonation of their voice when they speak.
Describe what you see in ways that refer to the inherent qualities of the object, not judgments of interpretations. “Small,” for example, is a judgment, while “about one inch in diameter” is a more objective description. Jonathan Kaplan, Ph.D
4. Focusing on a single sense at a time
If you struggle to describe everything that is going on in the present moment another great way to start practising mindfulness is to focus on a single sense at a time. I have found this exercise to work best during more passive activities like taking the bus or waiting for something. It doesn’t require a lot of time commitment either it could be a 10-second exercise or last a few minutes.
All you have to do is pick a sense and then try to focus on it. I tend to use smell, hearing or touch. While waiting at the bus stop for example I focus on the noise around me, the cars getting louder and fading again as they pass, the sirens in the distance and the wind, the chatter from the pubs nearby or the birds and animals. You might be surprised how much of the noises around us we have learned to filter out. Sometimes I focus on touch while I wait for a meeting to start, concentrating on the feeling of a pen in my hand, the keyboard under my fingers or the chair against my back.
Your conscious attention can be on only one thing at a time. If you’re focusing on one of your senses, your attention isn’t feeding your circling worries and concerns. As a result, they begin to lose a bit of their strength. Without your attention on your worries, they effectively don’t exist. Shamash Alidina
5. Sleep meditation
My mind seems to be the busiest when I am trying to fall asleep. Suddenly I remember all of the tasks I meant to do during the day or panic about upcoming events. Sometimes it can feel helpful as I take time to reflect on the day or come up with great new ideas, but more often than not this habit can become a vicious circle of worrying and ruminating resulting in poor or little sleep.
While a small amount of late-night contemplation can be useful when we are tired our emotions can get the better of us and can affect our thoughts and behaviours. This can lead to us following a train of thought through to an often-disastrous conclusion. Kathryn Pinkham
Even if you never struggle to fall asleep but want to get into the habit of practising mindfulness, sleep mediation can be a great time-efficient way to learn to focus the thoughts. Personally, I have found sleep stories most helpful and relaxing, but there are lots of other practises and apps out there. Audible has introduced a new collection of sleep stories and meditation that is free for its members. Some of the most popular apps that also have guided sleep meditation are Calm or Headspace, but there are also a variety of free apps and youtube videos.
Final Thoughts
There are many resources, books and apps available with mindfulness exercises and practices. When I was new to the concept, I felt overwhelmed by the choices and worried that I had to take a lot of time out of my day to become a changed person. I am used to focusing on productivity and “being busy” makes me happy.
Over time I have learned that there is no right or wrong way to meditate or be mindful and it takes practice. I have chosen to stick with the exercises that I have found most beneficial and didn’t require a huge amount of additional effort or time commitment.