Mindfulness: What is it and Ideas of How You Can Start Practicing It Today

Mindfulness: What is it and Ideas of How You Can Start Practicing It Today

Kyrie Hemingson

Estimate reading time: 12 minutes

Rooted in ancient philosophies and backed by modern science, mindfulness can reduce stress, boost focus, and improve overall well-being. You don’t need hours of meditation to get started. Just a few minutes a day can make a big difference in how you experience life.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the practice of being fully present and engaged in the current moment with an attitude of openness, curiosity, and acceptance. Mindfulness involves observing our thoughts, feelings, and surroundings without judgement so that we can fully engage in the current moment. Everyone has the ability to fully engage in each moment but this is something that can take lots of practice as it’s not something that necessarily comes easily—especially if there is a lot of stress or stimulation in your life.

For more exploration on mindfulness, check out this video.

Mindfulness Ideas

When it comes to mindfulness, there is no “one size fits all.” What helps someone achieve active presence in a moment may not work for you, and that’s okay. The important thing is to choose practices that genuinely support your well-being. As long as it helps you feel better, more balanced, or more like yourself, then it’s a good practice and worth doing. 

Below are some ways you can practice mindfulness. There are more ways than just what is listed here so do your best to try and customize things to what works best for you!

Breathing Exercises

Before looking at breathing exercises, it can be helpful to understand how breathing exercises calm the body’s nervous system at a physiological level.

The body’s nervous system is comprised of the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. In the diagram below you can see that your central nervous system is made up of the brain and spinal cord.

Focusing on the autonomic nervous system, this system is responsible for any automatic functions in our body. This includes things like moderating digestion, regulating your heart rate and respiration, etc. The autonomic nervous system can be further divided into the sympathetic autonomic nervous system and the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system.

Focusing on the sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic nervous systems, your sympathetic nervous system is the system that kicks in when a person is in high stress situations and your body must react quickly. It prepares your bodies for a “fight or flight” response by doing things like increasing your heart rate, dilating your pupils, inhibiting digestion, and releasing adrenaline. 

Your parasympathetic nervous system on the other hand promotes “rest and digest” responses when the body is at rest. It’s going to do the opposite of our fight or flight response – our heart rate will decrease, our digestion will flourish and our body’s will conserve energy. 

So how does our breath and breathing tie into our nervous system?

Well breathing is unique as it’s automatically controlled—we don’t have to consciously think about breathing, our brains naturally control this function, but, at the same time we can also voluntarily control our breath too. For example, this voluntary control is how we hold our breath when swimming. Knowing this, when we are in stressful situations or want to destress, we can control our breathing to sort of “hack into” our nervous system and activate the parasympathetic nervous system, purposely telling our bodies to calm down. 

Breathing exercises can be done pretty much anywhere and can help calm the nervous system down in less than 3 minutes. In terms of some breathing exercises to try, here are 3 examples:

1. Diaphragmatic breathing or belly breathing

Diaphragmatic breathing or belly breathing involves lying down or sitting in a comfortable position with one hand on your heart center or upper chest and the other at the top of your belly, right below your rib cage as that’s where your diaphragm is. Once you are settled, breathe in deeply through your nose so that your belly pushes against your bottom hand. The hand at your chest should remain as we want each breath to stem from your belly instead of your shoulders. On your out breath, push the air out of your mouth. Repeat this process for as long as you need, finding a relaxed pattern of in and out breaths. Take deep breaths, drawing your attention to the way the hand on your belly moves out as you breathe in.

2. Pursed Lip Breathing

To try this pursed lip breathing, start lying down or in a seated position. Relax your neck and shoulders and keep your mouth closed to begin. Then, slowly inhale through your nose for 2 or 3 counts. After this, pucker or pursue your lips, kind of like you’re going to whistle or using a straw. Now, exhale slowly through your pursed lips for a count of 4. This technique can be very helpful as it helps slow down breathing, increases oxygen intake, and can ease shortness of breath.

3. 4-7-8 Breathing or 555 Breathing

Other breathing techniques to draw you back in to the current moment can involve focusing on the counts of your breath. For example, the 4-7-8 method involves breathing in for a count of 4, holding your breath for 7 seconds, and then slowly exhaling for 8. You can also switch up the counts to work for what is comfortable for you. For example, I like my breath in, my hold, and my exhale to be even so I breath in for 5, hold for 5, and then exhale for 5. 

For more Breathing Techniques for Stress Relief check out this link.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive Muscle Relaxation helps relax the muscles through physically tensing specific body parts, followed by releasing that tension.

To start, lie down in a comfortable position on your back. If comfortable, have your legs about shoulder length apart and your arms beside you, palms to the sky. This exercise involves systematically tensing up parts of your body, going from the bottom with your feet, to the top of your body with your forehead. The steps up the body are the muscle groups you will tense. Focus on the area your going to be tensing, for example, your calves. Tense them really hard for about 5 or so seconds as you’re breathing in. Try and really feel the tension in your muscles, with potentially some discomfort and shaking. Then, relax the muscles you were just tensing completely as you exhale. Remain in this relaxed position for about 15 or so seconds before you move on to the next muscle group. When doing this you should never feel intense or shooting pain in the muscles you are tensing.

For more on how you can tense your muscles, as it might not be super intuitive as to how you can tense your forehead for example, check out this link.  

Visualization

Visualization exercises are another great tool that can be used to help us engage in the present moment. These techniques utilize mental images you can create in our mind to create a sense of well-being in your body. 

  • 1. Body scans are a type of visualization meditation that require you to focus your attention on the different parts of your body. Start by lying in a comfortable position and take a few deep breaths to get your body into a relaxed state. Starting from the bottom of your body and then working your way up, begin by bringing your attention to our feet, noticing any sensations in your toes, your soles, and if you’re holding any tension here. If there is any discomfort, acknowledge it and then try to left go of it. This is where the visualization comes in. Try to visualize the tension leaving the part of your body that you can been focusing on as you breathe out. Once you’re ready, move your focus up to your calf muscles, then your knees, and so forth repeating the process of noticing sensations and visualizing the tension leaving through your breath. Do this with intention, taking your time to purposefully move up your body to your forehead until you’ve scanned your entire body.
  • 2. Safe place visualization is another great visualization where you essentially create a mental sanctuary. To begin, find a comfortable position in a quiet place. Close your eyes and turn your attention to your breath. Take a few deep breaths, potentially using a previously discussed breathing exercise to enter a relaxed state. Now, imagine a place where you feel completely safe. This can be a real place that you’ve been to or it can be something that you completely create from scratch. For some people this can look like a peaceful nature scene, or a place that has good memories. While imagining this, think about what this space looks like but also what it smells like. Are there are any sounds, or sensations like moss under foot or soft wind? Think about what your 5 senses (sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste) would experience in this environment and try to visualize it. Now, allow yourself to feel completely at ease here. Let these feelings of comfortability soothe any stress or tension you may be carrying. Stay here for as long as you’d like. Eventually, slowly bring your awareness back to your physical surroundings. Wiggle your fingers and toes, take a few more deep breaths and then gently open your eyes.
  • 3. Gratitude visualizations cultivate a sense of gratitude and positivity. Like all of the things discussed, start in a comfortable position and focus on your breath with your eyes closed. Now, visualize moments in your life that you were and are grateful for. Picture these memories in detail. As you imagine each moment, focus on the feelings of gratitude and warmth that arise. You can continue to do this until you feel ready to bring our awareness back to where you physically are, opening your eyes when you’re finished.

There are a lot of different types of visualization exercises you can try. For a few more, check out this link.

Meditation

A common misconception with meditation is that it involves emptying your minds. In reality, meditation is not about stopping your thoughts, but rather observing them as they are without getting caught up in them. 

Like many of the mindfulness techniques discussed, start by finding a quiet space where you can sit or lay comfortably. From there, turn your attention to your breath. Now, the most basic of meditation involves remaining in this position and focusing on your breath while allowing your thoughts to flow. When a thought comes up, acknowledge it, let it do its little dance, and then allow it to dissipate. If you get caught in it, bring your awareness back to your breath.

Other types of meditation can also involve repeating phrases (mantras) or directing our thoughts to something specific as a way to invite the present moment in. 

For different types of meditations you can explore, follow this link. Additionally, guided meditations such as this one can be useful. For more, check out the apps mentioned at the end of this blog post under Additional Resources.

Mindfulness in Daily Activities

Finally, you can practice mindfulness in your daily activities as they happen as well. 

Remember, the definition of mindfulness is based on being fully present and engaged in whatever you’re doing, with a non-judgemental awareness of your thoughts, feelings, and surroundings

Here are a few ways you can integrate mindfulness into in your daily routine: 

If you are on a walk, whether this is at work or outside as part of daily movement, this can be a really beautiful opportunity to ground yourself and practice mindfulness. This can include things like really noticing the scenery, sounds, and people or animals around you. You can also focus on how your body feels as you take each step. Do your arms swing when you walk? What does the ground beneath you feel like? Try to notice the rhythm of your steps, your posture, and any other sensations that you encounter.

You can also practice mindfulness while eating. It’s very common for many people nowadays to watch tv, or YouTube, or multitask and do other activities while sitting for meal times. Instead, you can use this time to slow down and pay closer attention to what you’re eating and those you’re eating with. Here, you can also practice mindful listening in making sure you are fully paying attention to what those with you are saying. Listen without planning your response to what they are saying.

When driving or commuting to work this can be another opportunity to slow down and really pay attention to what’s around you, what you see, hear, smell. 

All of this to remind you that mindfulness doesn’t need to be a big thing that takes up a lot of your time. It can be, but it can also just be focusing on what you are experiencing in a moment as you experience it.

For more on integrating mindfulness into your daily routine, check out this link.

Additional Resources

Websites:

Apps:

Books:

Blog post adapted from the McKinney Psychology presentation Self-Care & Mindfulness: How to Integrate These Practices Into Your Daily Living as part of our Path to Wellness Series. For more information, please contact our office.