The Mindful Way of Life: Destress with Mindfulness
Let me start with a question: How do you feel? What are the emotions you are feeling right now? What thoughts and emotions do you harbour? Take your time and think of the answers.By doing so, you will be taking your first step towards mindfulness. And if the answers come easily to you, congratulations! Most likely, you are already practising mindfulness. Hence, you are less likely to experience intense stress.
Mindfulness is a cognitive skill developed over time, often through meditation. Mindfulness allows you to be acutely aware of your inner as well as your outer world—your surroundings. Stress has been labelled as the 'silent killer’, causing younger people to suffer from cardiac arrest and heart attack. Practising mindfulness is one of the many ways you can avoid extreme stress. Here is how you can do it -
1) Train Your Brain
Your brain can be rewired at any age. It's constantly absorbing information, storing it, and utilising it. The first step towards mindfulness is to keep reminding your brain to be more aware.
You can start by trying to keep track of your emotions. Questioning yourself more and self-reflecting often. When you repeatedly do this, you train your brain to analyse more—your emotions, your surroundings, and your thoughts. Your brain receives signals of being more aware, pushing ‘Why do I feel this way?’ over ‘Why me?’.
2) Journaling
Journaling plays a significant role in keeping up with and improving your mental health. When you are writing down how you feel, what you think, and how you perceive yourself and your surroundings, you are bound to become more mindful.
It offers you a safe space for the free flow of your thoughts. Besides, it can be cathartic for you and definitely a great way to become more mindful.
3) Walking
“Take a walk to clear your head.”
It’s not just a phrase, but a fact. Walking does help you clear your head. In fact, any kind of exercise is helpful when it comes to coping with stress or mental fatigue.
While developing mindfulness, try focusing on how your body moves and how you feel physically. After all, mindfulness must also extend to your body and surroundings.
4) Learn to Listen
A good orator is heard, but a good listener learns, observes and interprets. The art of listening is not limited to simply not speaking or interrupting anyone while they speak. A good listener hears everything on the surface and anything beyond it. Listening needs observation and analysis.
If you think you are not yet a good listener, don't worry; nobody is born a listener. It's a skill one has to cultivate. Start by trying to pay more attention to the tone, body language, gestures and eye of the speaker, and observe in silence. When you learn to be a good listener, you naturally become better at observing and analysing. This helps you to become more mindful of your emotions and be empathetic to the people around you.
5) Start Meditating
The key that unlocks the treasures of the conscious and unconscious is, ultimately, mindfulness. Meditation is one of the best ways to become a more mindful person. It calms your mind and helps you go through each of your thoughts without overwhelming you.
Practising mindfulness is easy but needs consistency. The results, however, are worth it—less stress, less anxiety, and so much more to learn. Mindfulness allows you to learn about yourself, to know yourself, and ultimately to manage your mental health. So why not start today? It's simple; it has some minute changes, but it works. It works when those changes turn into habits.