{This post contains affiliate links and I may earn a small commission on qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you. Thank you in advance.}
What is mindfulness and why is it such a critical aspect of a peaceful and fulfilling life?
Mindfulness is our ability to bring conscious awareness to our lives and cultivate stillness despite the business going on around us.
It’s tuning into both our inner and outer worlds more fully and effectively.
When we practice cultivating mindfulness, we are more present and experience our day to day moments more fully.
It's a subtle gap between our thoughts. It protects the mind from the chaos going on around us.
The more mindful we are, the more at peace we become.
Mindfulness is a gentle reminder that everything we need is already within.
We begin to rely less on extrinsic motivation and more on the intrinsic.
It’s important to keep in mind, mindfulness is a daily practice.
It's not something we attain once and then have forever.
Without deliberate care and nurturing, it quickly slips through our fingers.
Here are a few ways you can cultivate mindfulness throughout your day and enjoy a life of more peace and fulfillment.
MEDITATION
When I began my spiritual journey two years ago, I started with just a few minutes of meditation every morning.
It was a challenge in the beginning, so I would only practice for five to ten minutes at a time.
Soon after, I began noticing a significant difference in my stress and anxiety levels.
So many things in my life began to shift, and I was hooked from that point on.
Now, I meditate for fifteen to twenty minutes every morning, and it has been the single most transformational habit in my life.
To learn more about my experience with meditation and how it can change your life click here.
WORDS OF AFFIRMATION
To maintain a high vibration, it’s crucial that we continually remind ourselves to be in a positive state.
The brain's job is to keep us safe not make us happy, which is why we are typically looking for perceived danger and focusing on the negative.
If we are not mindful of this tendency, we will easily be swept away by negative emotions.
When we place words of affirmation throughout our environment, we are priming the mind to focus on the positive rather than the negative.
For example, a post-it note on your mirror that says, I am successful or I am powerful interrupts the negative voice of your subconscious mind.
These subtle reminders negate our negative programming and plant seeds of positivity while bringing awareness to our thoughts.
RELATED: 10 POSITIVE DAILY AFFIRMATIONS
Passwords
I was in a webinar last week with the renowned speaker and transformational therapist, Marisa Peer.
Marisa spoke a lot about reprogramming the subconscious mind through the use of descriptive words and positive affirmations to reinforce self-confidence and minimize limiting beliefs.
She made a suggestion that I had never heard before.
She told us to change the passwords on all of our devices to the words, I am enough.
Marisa is very big on the words I am enough and believes we must regularly feed our minds words of affirmation to combat our tendency to think disempowering beliefs .
I love the passwords idea because it's a super simple way to bring an element of mindfulness to our day.
I have a password on my laptop and I type that password five to ten times a day.
After following Marisa's suggestion, I am now reinforcing the words, I am enough, repeatedly into my subconscious mind.
Just imagine the impact this can have on our self-worth after doing this hundreds and thousands of times.
It's a subtle reminder that brings me back to the present moment and reminds me that I am enough no matter what is happening in my day.
Gratitude
There is nothing quite like a few moments of gratitude to bring you into a more mindful state.
Writing a list of ten things you are grateful for every morning will instantly remind you of all of your blessings.
Whether we realize it or not, we are wired to look for the negative and ignore the positive aspects of our lives.
This is why we must create a practice that highlights the positive and minimizes negative thinking.
As we write a list of things we have to be grateful for, we prime the mind to seek more of the same throughout our day.
Gradually we begin to appreciate life more and notice the beauty all around us, even in the littlest things.
RELATED: 5 HABITS THAT COMPLETELY CHANGED MY LIFE
Nature
Spending thirty minutes walking on a beautiful trail is one of the best ways to cultivate mindfulness.
To truly immerse yourself in this experience, I suggest leaving your phone at home.
Do not even listen to music on your walk.
Just enjoy the scenery and listen to the sounds of nature.
What a beautiful way to disconnect from the busyness of life and go within.
There is so much creativity to be discovered in these peaceful walks.
If you are struggling to find a solution in your life, quiet walks in solitude will surely bring clarity.
Breathwork
In ancient yogic teachings, the practice of directing the breath is called Pranayama.
Studies show we can restore balance to the stress response systems, calm an agitated mind, relieve anxiety, and improve physical health all through changing our breathing patterns.
As little as 1-2 minutes of deep breathing is incredibly powerful at recalibrating the nervous system and settling the mind.
There’s a multitude of breathing exercises you can try.
A simple but effective breathing exercise is to take a deep inhalation through your nose and out through your mouth as if you were blowing through a straw.
Count to four as you breathe in and hold at the top of the breath for four seconds, then breathe out slowly for a count of four.
Repeat this six to ten times and notice its calming effects on the brain and body.
If you notice yourself feeling stressed or overwhelmed, this quick "innercise" will bring you back to the present moment and activate your parasympathetic nervous system, which slows your heart rate and calms the mind.
I hope this gives you some insight into the many different ways you can be more mindful throughout your day.
Practice incorporating one or two of these habits and see if you notice any benefits.
A life full of stress and anxiety is no way to live.
Become more mindful of your thoughts and practices, and release old patterns that are not serving you.
The more aware you become, the happier and more present you will be.
Do you have a favorite mindfulness practice? Share in the comments.
Tired of living a life that doesn’t have you jumping out of bed every morning filled with passion and purpose? Ready to live with less stress and more ease?
If you want to live a life that lights you up from the inside out and has you on the road to success…then you’re in the right place!
This 40 page Ebook outlines how I went from being unfulfilled and uninspired to uncovering my passion and purpose.
It is my heartfelt wish that my experiences will be a guiding light for you to find direction and alignment in your own life.
If you’re ready to achieve your goals, feel inspired, and move towards your DREAM life then you will want to read this!
