5 Simple Ways to Live a More Mindful Life

Practical tips for cultivating mindfulness in everyday living.

In a society that consistently rewards productivity over anything else, it’s becoming more and more challenging to live a meaningful and intentional life.

We need to actively pursue balance in our lives, or else we’re just going to face a lifetime of work and chronic busyness.

These are 5 key practices you can include in your life to slow down and live a more intentional, mindful life.

1. Walk

“Every day, I walk myself into a state of well-being & walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, & the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.” — Soren Kierkegaard

Walking is a great way to practice mindfulness, and to be present and intentional. Walking can also help us process thoughts and emotions and better tune in to our consciousness. This is a similar idea to the Latin phrase solvitur ambulando: “It is solved by walking.”

To reap the benefits of walking, you don’t even need to have a specially allocated walking session. It could be your walk from the office to the car, or from the bus stop to your house. You’re going to be walking anyway, so why not use this time to your advantage?

If you’re working from home, go for a walk around the block. No matter where you are, the point is to pay attention — to sensations, thoughts, your breath, and what’s going on around you.

Thich Nhat Hanh says,

“When you walk, arrive with every step. That is walking meditation. There’s nothing else to it.”

Whenever I have a lot on my mind, I’ll go for a long walk, listening to my thoughts but also listening to the world around me. I’m objective. I’m not labeling anything. I am simply noticing. Thoughts just want to be noticed and taking the time to notice them will help them dissipate.

Even when I’m not worried about something, I have found walking to be a great way to practice mindfulness. Sitting still is difficult for a lot of people, but we can be just as mindful when we are walking. Pay attention to your breath. Feel the ground pushing back against your feet. Hear the sounds, smell the smells. This is how you live a slow and intentional life.

We should take wandering outdoor walks so that the mind might be nourished and refreshed by the open air and deep breathing.

— Seneca

2. Meditate

I know everyone is saying meditation is changing their life, but I truly believe it’s a practice everyone should include in their lives in some form.

For me, meditation allows me to create space between event and reaction — and even more than that, to respond rather than react. It’s like meditation gives you more space, more clarity, more contentment. A meditation practice helps you be content with how things are, right now, no matter how they look. And this is key when looking to create a slower, more intentional life.

Meditation provides stillness. It’s time alone with your breath and your body. It’s time to get to know yourself, to be aware of what is going on inside of you — both mentally and physically.

We don’t all have to meditate in the same way, and a lot of us probably don’t even need to sit down to a formal meditation practice. However, having some sort of practice in your day where you can be still, introspective, and build this incredibly important skill is something that would be valuable to every single person.

“Sitting is not the only way to meditate nor is it the pinnacle of spiritual discipline. On the contrary. In Zen Buddhism, it’s labor — doing things — that illuminates. The classic path to liberation involves action and alchemy, channeling philosophical understanding into the practice of a craft…. Early Zen focused on active meditation. Spirituality was channeled through labor — arts, crafts, daily tasks.” — Ephrat Livni

Develop a regular meditation practice by following these 4 steps:

• Start small: Aim for 5 minutes, or even just one minute if you think that’s all you can commit to. The idea is to commit to a length of time you can do consistently — ideally every single day.
• Decide on a time of day to practice: Deciding on a time and doing your meditation at the same time each day makes it much more likely you’ll do it consistently.
• Commit to this practice: While each session of meditation does produce benefits on its own, the real magic of meditation comes from consistent practice, and compounds over time.
• Utilize supports: There are so many ways to support your practice. One of the most accessible supports is a meditation app. While using an app may not seem like “traditional” meditation, it can be incredibly helpful, especially when you’re starting out.

3. Journal

Building on the point above, time alone with your journal is time alone in stillness — a chance to get to know yourself on a deeper level, and to understand who you really are.

Journaling allows you to reflect, to plan, to meditate on thoughts and ideas. To always be a better human than you were the day before. This is essential when looking for ways to slow down and to live more intentionally.

Journaling provides the perfect opportunity to sit in stillness and pay attention to your mind and body. What are your thoughts doing? How does your body feel? What emotions are you experiencing? Write them down.

You may find it helpful to bookend your day with journaling — having both a morning and evening practice.

The stillness of the morning is the perfect time to reflect on your purpose, to consider your path, and to create a plan for the day. This practice helps me to check in with myself before the chaos of the day, to get some thoughts straightened out and out of my head, and provides some clarity into how I am and what today is going to be about. This is crucial for setting me up for a slow and intentional day.

The end of the day is a great time to reflect on what went well during the day, what you could do differently tomorrow, and where you could be more — more loving, more patient, more valuable. You can reflect on whether you have lived in alignment with your values, and whether you fulfilled your purpose.

Find a journaling template and mode that works for you. Maybe you like the traditional pen and paper. Maybe you prefer a document on your computer. Maybe you’d do best with a phone app. Find something that resonates with you, and stick with this practice.

The simple act of connecting with your thoughts, your purpose, and your plan for the day will help you to slow down and to be more intentional with your time and energy.

4. Eliminate

“In the midst of overwhelm, is life not showing me exactly what I should subtract?” — Tim Ferriss

When I read this quote in Tim’s book, Tools of Titans, I felt like my whole life stopped.

I was in the middle of burning out, I was feeling way too busy, and I wasn’t overly happy with my life.

But when I read this, I literally stopped, and I wrote this down, and I started looking at what I could subtract.

It’s so easy for us to look for things we can add when life feels overwhelming, but the key is to instead look for what we can subtract.

Rosie Spinks explains this phenomenon in her article:

“But when life feels overwhelming — and truly, when does it not? — I’ve noticed that my brain’s system for allocating real estate can go a little haywire. I will start to make space for way too many things, like shoving in more mediocre condos into an already too-dense neighborhood. When you’re overwhelmed, your brain can tell you the story that the way to get out of it is by doing more.”

I also love how Tim Ferriss and Derek Sivers speak about this in a podcast they did together:

Derek: “Every time people contact me, they say, ‘Look, I know you must be incredibly busy . . .’ and I always think, ‘No, I’m not.’ Because I’m in control of my time. I’m on top of it. ‘Busy,’ to me, seems to imply ‘out of control.’ Like, ‘Oh my God, I’m so busy. I don’t have any time for this shit!’ To me, that sounds like a person who’s got no control over their life.”

Tim: “Lack of time is lack of priorities. If I’m “busy,” it is because I’ve made choices that put me in that position, so I’ve forbidden myself to reply to “How are you?” with “Busy.” I have no right to complain. Instead, if I’m too busy, it’s a cue to reexamine my systems and rules.”

Derek: “I do things, but I stop before anything gets stressful. . . . “You notice this internal ‘Argh.’ That’s my cue. I treat that like physical pain. What am I doing? I need to stop doing that thing that hurts. What is that? And, it usually means that I’m just pushing too hard, or doing things that I don’t really want to be doing.”

Busyness is the biggest hindrance in living a slow and intentional life.

And being busy is a lack of priorities. We all have some control over this. Look for ways you can eliminate busyness from your life. This will give you both the time and energy for a more intentional and slow way of living.

5. Practice Gratitude

This doesn’t need to be an arduous process.

It can be short and simple. It’ll only take a minute. But the research is inarguable: gratitude will increase your happiness. But even more than that, it’ll increase your health in general.

This is key when looking to live more slowly and intentionally.

For me, this practice is as simple as writing one sentence. Today I am grateful for…

It takes 2 minutes maximum, but sets me up for an intentional day.

Starting your day with gratitude means you’re focusing on all that you already have, and all that you already are. This is so important in our society where the scarcity mindset is running rampant.

We wake up and our first thought is usually, “I didn’t get enough sleep.” Then all day we’re thinking about how we don’t have enough time or enough money, and then we go to bed thinking we didn’t get enough done today.

Gratitude can counter this.

Gratitude says, I have done enough, I have enough, I am enough.

Similarly, regularly reminding yourself of everything you already have and cultivating a sense of gratitude will allow you to continue striving and growing, knowing that you already have enough and you are enough. You will always be enough.

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