6 Everyday Mindfulness Techniques That Will Boost Your Calmness
Simple ways to practice stillness in everyday life
Mindfulness is a popular topic these days.
In times of uncertainty, fast-paced changes, and endless distractions, many people seek to reduce their anxiety with mindfulness.
But what does mindfulness mean in the real world?
The American Psychological Association defines mindfulness as a “moment-to-moment awareness of one’s experience without judgment.”
In other words, mindfulness is the state of being aware of the present moment.
By focusing your thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations on the present, you achieve mental clarity. And this clarity will reduce anxiety, cut out distractions, and boost your calmness.
Better still, it will help you focus on one particular activity, bolstering your productivity.
How to become more mindful in everyday life
I was never a fan of long meditative rituals or classic mindfulness techniques like yoga.
I admire people who manage to meditate for one hour, and I understand the benefits of yoga, but personally, these practices are too spiritual.
As such, I favor short acts of mindfulness that fit into an average daily routine.
On this basis, here are six everyday mindfulness techniques that will boost your calmness.
1. Prioritize mindfulness right after getting up
A mindful morning routine doesn’t demand an hour of meditation, only a short spell.
In the traditional sense, I suck at meditation. I remember talking to a yoga-teaching friend who told me that I am doing it wrong.
Nevertheless, I found that prioritizing mindfulness — instead of following a fixed meditative routine — works wonders in the morning.
In truth, most of us don’t have time for a complicated meditative ritual after getting up.
That’s where a short stint of morning mindfulness comes to fruition.
Take a few minutes and plan the day in your head. Think about today’s challenges, potential wins, and exciting moments.
These five minutes of planning will help you encounter the day with calmness and serenity.
They might not satisfy the most fervent meditation experts, but as an everyday mindfulness technique, small acts of mental planning do the job.
2. Find cues that remind you to be mindful throughout the day
On most days, mindfulness isn’t a given.
We get up, commute to work, reply to emails, go to meetings, eat a sandwich, work a bit more, hit the gym, get home, and watch Peaky Blinders on Netflix.
In our uber-busy daily lives, we run the risk of disregarding mindfulness.
That’s why we need to remind ourselves with little cues that pop up in everyday situations.
A “be mindful” coffee cup, a wallpaper on our phone, or a note on our desk can help us remember the importance of mindfulness during the hustle and bustle of our daily lives.
These cues tell us one critical thing: you’re busy, but don’t forget to be mindful.
As an example, for long periods of my corporate career, I used a black background with the word “breathe” as a tablet screensaver. Every time I wanted to unlock the tablet, I cleared my mind for one minute before approaching the task at hand.
3. Pause your mind after cognitively challenging activities
According to mindfulness teacher Ted Meissner, dispersing short pauses throughout the day is more effective than a “formal” 30-minute mindfulness break.
The idea is to pause your mind after cognitively demanding activities.
Once you’ve spent an hour on an important work assignment, take a few minutes to gather your thoughts and breathe. Repeat the process after the next task.
These short spells of stillness guarantee daily mindfulness without the rigidity of pre-planned meditative sessions.
Better still, a five-minute mind-clearing interlude isn’t physically or mentally challenging. It won’t feel like an obligation — more like natural relaxation after intense work.
4. Learn to enjoy waiting time
Most people associate the concept of “waiting” with boredom and waste. We waste precious time while waiting for public transit, our partner to arrive, or the pizza delivery guy.
To counter this negative pre-conception, transform your waiting times into a source of daily mindfulness.
When waiting for a train, take out a journal and write down your thoughts. If your partner is late, close your eyes for five minutes and think about the best moments in your relationship.
And if you are waiting for a delivery or other external happening, pause your mind and focus on today’s accomplishments.
Celebrating waiting times is one of the best everyday mindfulness techniques because it will allow you to incorporate short rituals into “lost” periods.
5. Practice mindfulness during mundane activities
Akin to adding mindfulness into your waiting times, practicing it during mundane activities is a powerful habit.
By furthering your calmness during routine activities like cooking, showering, or walking, a combination of small acts can have a substantial impact.
In the words of mindfulness teacher and co-author of the book The Mindful Manifesto Ed Halliwell, “bring awareness to the daily activities you usually do on autopilot.”
Focusing your thoughts during seemingly futile activities will calm your mind and also bolster your general mindfulness.
By starting with small acts, you gradually learn how to connect with the present in a broader sense.
6. Calm your mind at night
Finally, everyday mindfulness techniques undoubtedly also include nightly serenity.
Try to find rituals that will calm your mind at night and alleviate the day’s stress factors.
There are countless ways to achieve mindfulness at night. Certain tactics work for certain people, but in general, activities that shut down your mind will do the trick.
Tim Ferriss, for example, puts his phone away, drinks his special tea, takes a hot bath, reads fiction, sweats in his sauna, gulps down a liter of water, and listens to an audiobook.
These habits cured his “lifelong insomnia,” and nowadays ensure stillness at night.
By themselves, the rituals don’t matter. What matters is that they contribute to your nightly mindfulness.
The secret lies in finding small acts that will merge into a general state of mindfulness at night.
Once identified, these habits will drastically improve the quality of your sleep and also provide all the necessary ingredients for a mindful morning.
