Keeping Mindfulness Simple

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the practice of focusing on present moment awareness without judgment. Mindfulness practice can include meditation or other spiritual practices, but in its simplest form, it doesn’t have to. Mindfulness is a simple practice that can be done by anyone, at any time of day or night. Simply tune into the present moment, get curious, and notice – that’s all it means to practice mindfulness. You might wonder, “does mindfulness really work?” and the answer is a resounding yes. Research shows that mindfulness has a plethora of benefits including reduction of feelings of stress and anxiety among others!

Why Keep Mindfulness Simple?

Mindfulness doesn’t need to be overcomplicated. This can create barriers to mindfulness practice, such as thinking it requires too much time, it’s too complex, or that it feels overwhelming. Keeping mindfulness simple can help make it an accessible, consistent, and sustainable practice. Mindfulness doesn’t need to be a formal ritual either. It can be an everyday skill that you incorporate naturally into your everyday life.

Easy Mindfulness Techniques

• Breath Awareness: Pause for a moment and focus on your breathing for a few moments anytime throughout the day. Notice how your breath feels coming in and out of your nose – is it warm, cool? Does it feel shallow or deep? The key is noticing without judgement.
• Body Scan: Take a moment for a quick mental check-in to notice physical sensations. Close your eyes or soften your gaze and notice how different parts of your body are feeling in the moment. Take note of sensations – comfortable, uncomfortable, warm, cold, etc. Simply take note.
  Sensory Experience: Begin to tune into sights, sounds, and smells around you. Notice your reaction to these senses. How do they register with you? What do you notice?
• Mindful Eating: Slow down your eating, paying attention to textures and tastes during meals and snacks. Notice how each bite feels on your tongue, and what temperature it is. Try to consider what spices and flavors are most noticeable to you.
• Walking Mindfully: Either on a dedicated mindful walk or anywhere you may be walking, increase your awareness of each step and how your body responds to each movement. Feel the soles of your feet and notice how they’re hitting the ground. Where else in your body can you feel the walk? As with all of these techniques, make sure to do so without judgement. Just notice.

Incorporating Mindfulness into Daily Life

Practical tips include setting reminders on your phone, watch, or computer to help you remember to pause and notice without judgement. It can also help to pair mindfulness with routine tasks, like doing the dishes, cooking, or getting ready for bed. It can also help to try practicing mindfulness in moments of transition (e.g., waiting in line, commuting, or getting out of bed in the morning). These are things you are already doing, and to practice mindfulness, all you need to do is begin to tap into nonjudgmental noticing. Remember, prioritize brief but frequent practice over longer sessions. This will help you maintain the habit in the long run!

Mindfulness and Mental Health

Research supports that engaging in simple mindfulness practices can reduce anxiety and improve mood. Mindfulness can also support emotional regulation and resilience, improving the practitioner’s Window of Tolerance to be able to increase a person’s ability to handle distress. Practicing mindfulness can also enhance focus and reduce rumination. Practitioners at Health in Mind can provide psychoeducation around mindfulness exercises and work with you to build presence and nonjudgmental awareness as part of your therapy. We also have mindful videos on our website.

Overcoming Challenges

It is natural for your mind to wander during mindfulness practice. When it happens (not if – your mind will wander and that’s okay) simply notice that your mind has wandered and gently and nonjudgementally return to a state of mindful awareness. When it feels hard to stay mindful during a mindfulness activity, normalize that. It is hard to stay mindful in our ever changing, highly stimulating world. Notice the difficulty, and with kindness and a state of nonjudgement, work to return to a mindful awareness. The act of returning again and again from distraction and difficulty to a mindful state is the practice. That starts to teach your brain how to return to a mindful, calm state.

Avoid self-judgment and perfectionism in mindfulness. It is not a destination, it is a practice. Use neutral and non-judgmental self talk and be patient with yourself. It is a new skill you are learning. Start with short durations and continue to remind yourself that you are practicing.

Tips for staying motivated without pressure:

• Remind yourself that mindfulness can be done at any time of day by anyone by tuning into thoughts, body sensations, senses, or emotions during any routine daily activity.
  Mindfulness can be for even 20-30 seconds to start, it doesn’t have to be a 20 minute activity.
• Remember that nonjudgmental noticing is at the heart of the practice, and it is important to work towards kinder self talk and will be more effective the more you practice nonjudgmental internal talk to yourself.
• Do your best to remember that it is a practice. The only goal is self-improvement – it’s not a competition or a final hurdle to cross, only working to feel better than you did before starting mindfulness practice.
• Know that some days will feel harder than others. Daily experiences, emotions, triggers, and world events can make it feel harder to be present. Practice what you can on those days and notice the heaviness, and give yourself lots of grace.

Resources for Further Practice

If you are interested in continued learning around mindfulness practice, here are some suggestions for places to start:

• The Insight timer and Calm apps both are free to download and have free content available without needing to utilize their paid versions. They offer sections with beginner-friendly content, music to use while practicing your own mindfulness, or voice-guided mindfulness activities, such as body scans that you can search and try for yourself.
• Authors of mindfulness books to look into include Thich Nhat Hanh, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Zee Clarke, Tara Brach, and Young Pueblo. Searching for their names online will bring up their many books, as well as other online content they offer such as social media pages, blogs, podcasts, or Substacks.

Explore at your own pace – you don’t have to learn it all right now. You can always bookmark and come back to this page to explore resources and practices when the time feels right for you.

Moving Forward with a Mindfulness Practice

Keeping mindfulness simple helps keep it accessible. Use the tips in this article to see how you can use mindfulness in your everyday life. Start small today with a simple mindfulness exercise. Pick one, and try it, even if it is for less than 1 minute, you are practicing mindfulness. Incorporate mindfulness into your daily routine, practicing and stacking mindfulness with activities you are already doing. And remember, it is a practice that is founded on non-judgemental noticing. Be kind to yourself and mindfulness will follow.

FAQs

How to teach mindfulness to kids?

• Mindfulness for kids can look very similar to mindfulness for adults. Teaching kids how to practice noticing feelings, body sensations, their sensory experiences, or what is going on around them with a nonjudgmental, curious attitude, can be the same as it is for adults when using child-appropriate language.
  Additional mindfulness activities that can be helpful for kids (and their adults too!) can include some of the following:
  • A body scan, mindful eating, or a mindful walk as described above
  • Cloud watching by noticing clouds go by and thinking about their shape, how they move, or their texture
  • Stuffed Animal Breathing by laying down with a stuffed animal on their chest and watching the animal rise and fall, noticing how it looks and how it changes as their breathing calms
  • Starfish Breathing by using the pointer finger of one hand to trace the fingers of the other. Breathe in as they trace up a finger, pause at the fingertip, and breathe out as they trace down their finger. Prompt them to notice the sensory input and how they feel before and after the activity.

Does mindfulness help kids with adhd?

• Yes, absolutely. Mindfulness can be helpful due to the fact that it increases focus and presence, reduces stress and anxiety which can lead to emotional regulation, and can help encourage responding instead of impulsive reactions.