A mindful practice helps you reach a positive mind to live a life with the glass half full

Find out how to practice mindfulness and how it may benefit your mental health:

If you’ve read our previous articles about mindfulness – you may be curious about the different techniques to practice it. For those who’ve never heard of it, mindfulness involves a balance of clearing your mind and focusing.

As a society, we live very busy lives, being pulled in a million different directions at once. Mindfulness practice can help reduce the stress caused by our hectic lifestyles. We are mindful when we are aware of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surroundings at all times.

Mindfulness involves not judging our thoughts and feelings but paying attention to them. The point is that no way of thinking, or feeling is right or wrong at any given time. Instead of rehashing the past or imagining the future, we practice mindfulness by listening to what we’re presently feeling.

Originally developed as a Buddhist meditation technique, mindfulness is now widely used to manage stress. The mind and body benefit greatly from it as a result of the numerous positive effects it has.

Mindfulness exercises help to direct your attention away from thinking negatively. Instead, it encourages you to engage with the world around you positively and without judgement or interpretation.

Mindfulness practices involve breathing methods, guided imagery and many other techniques that help relax your body and mind to reduce stress and teach our minds to influence our behaviours. For example, our thoughts and feelings tend to stray off course throughout the day without us realising it.

Most times, we spend too much time planning, problem-solving, daydreaming or thinking negatively, which can be draining. With this said, it can make you experience stress, anxiety and, most likely, symptoms of depression.

Benefits of mindfulness

There are many benefits to practising mindfulness. Through it, you can experience thoughts and emotions with greater balance and acceptance. It includes improving your daily life, work, relationships, and overall well-being.

The following are some of these benefits:

1. Reduce stress

Having negative thoughts can come and go at any time. You may react to negative or stressful thoughts and feelings when you are not mindful.

Rumination is easy to get sucked into when you dwell excessively on past and future problems and worries. When you practice mindfulness, it may help your sense of being present, where you can observe your thoughts and feelings without chasing after them and without judgment.

Practising mindfulness allows you to observe your thoughts without getting caught up in them or to follow them. It can help reduce stress and anxiety due to mindful practice.

2. Improve Relationships

The practice of mindfulness exercises might help improve the relationships between family members and friends. During your daily responsibilities, you may be distracted when interacting with others. When you become more mindful, then you are more likely to be able to connect with the people around you.

3. Boosts Mental Well-being

Mindfulness can manage mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, and stress through mindfulness practice. It can help you become aware of your emotions or thoughts by focusing on the present moment. Additionally, it helps by training your mind to stay positive and reduce negative thinking.

4. Quality Sleep

Creating a sleep-friendly mental environment can be achieved through mindfulness. Sleep meditation can be helpful when you are having trouble sleeping or having anxiety about falling asleep.

Our lives and relationships can be improved when we become more present in our lives and relationships. Practising mindfulness has various physical, psychological, and social benefits, even for a few weeks. Even during a busy day, mindfulness involves the act of checking in with oneself.

Mindfulness is available in person, through apps, and online, as well as through the Zwavelstream clinic. It can be challenging to start a mindfulness practice but finding a calm and quiet place and setting may help.

The space can help you focus on self-awareness. There should be no distractions in the space and a comfortable place to sit or lie down. You can also use items such as plants, candles, or cushions to create a relaxing atmosphere.