A Mental Health Monday (Quick Bite) from Mental Armour
Four easy ways to incorporate small mindful moments. Moments of mindfulness can help bring a sense of calm and peace into our day. These moments can help reduce feelings of stress, anxiety, and overwhelm. A common belief is that incorporating mindfulness into your day requires time, the right environment, or even a meditation track to listen to. It does not have to be this complicated.
Moments of mindfulness are simply small points throughout your day when you give yourself permission to check in with yourself, how you’re feeling, and what is happening around you in the present moment. Permitting yourself small mindful moments every day can make a massive difference.
Here are four easy ways to incorporate small mindful moments into your current schedule.
So often we enter autopilot when doing the dishes or hanging up the washing. Try breaking this autopilot pattern and pay attention to the sounds, smells, and sensations that accompany each daily household task.
Try going for a walk without music or headphones. Listen to the birds, feel the breeze, pay attention to the flowers and colours around you. Really be present on your walk and see if you notice anything new.
Let your tea, coffee, or juice break be precisely that: a break. Take a moment to enjoy your tea, relax your muscles, and settle into the moment. Put your phone away and enjoy being completely present in this rest time for you.
Showers are another thing we tend to do on autopilot. Take this moment to pay attention to the temperature of the water, how it feels, and the smell of your shower gel. Give yourself this time as a moment to relax and rejuvenate.
What other ways might you be able to introduce small mindful moments? When else are you able to spend 30 seconds checking in with yourself, seeing what you need, and giving yourself permission to take a short break to reset your mind?
Shelly and Heath
I really like how simple and low-commitment these are. I want to make a list of similar activities for folks with physical accessibility needs like myself!
(Throwing back to last week's MHM) For a lot of folks, the be-still-and-focus-on-one-intention for x minutes can be impossible to overwhelming. Mindfulness can be any simple task where you are present and observant. Nature moments, cooking, gardening, knitting ...
I'd love to follow up where your list takes you
You know, I think I'm going to try this when I'm unloading the dishwasher. It's one of the chores I struggle the most with - the wrong combination of repetitive, detailed, yet boring - and trying to distract myself with listening to music or background videos means setting up devices, navigating to apps or websites, etc. etc. that usually end up distracting me from unloading the dishwasher altogether. Maybe if I did the opposite and put extra focus on the motions and sensations of unloading, I could trick my brain into not feeling like it's dying every time I do it.
I actually take the mindful shower a bit further and take cold showers once a day for about 2 minutes. I also am part of "Ice Cold Club" where we meet for breathwork and ice baths a few times a week. Keeping a daily practice of Cold Exposure has taught me how to calm myself down in a safe way and really improved my awareness and mindfulness.