Tips for Daily Mindfulness
When you first wake up in the morning, before jumping out of bed or reaching out for your phone, bring your attention to the breathing. Choose to start your day rather than letting the day start you. Observe five mindful breaths.
Don’t use your phone as an alarm. Buy a simple clock with an alarm.
Throughout the day, take a few moments to bring your attention to your breathing. Just pause. Observe five mindful breaths.
Choose one meal or snack during the day to eat mindfully. Attend to the colours, taste, textures, smells of the food.
Use times when you wait in a line or at the traffic light to notice standing and breathing. Resist the urge to look at your phone. Attend to sounds, notice your posture, feel the contact of your feet on the ground and how your body feels. Use this time to check-in with your experience at this moment. Are you feeling impatient?
When you walk between meetings, just walk, no emails or texts. Feel the feet on the floor, the air on the skin and the possibility of greeting people you pass rather than bumping into them.
Resist the pressure to multitask. Whenever possible, do one thing at the time and attend to it fully. Give it the whole of your attention.
Choose one daily activity to do mindfully - brushing your teeth, taking a shower, washing the dishes, putting on your shoes. Give it the whole of your attention (Thich Naht Khan)
Bring awareness to listening and talking. Can you listen without agreeing or disagreeing, liking or disliking, or planning what to say when it is your turn? When talking, can you just say what you need to say without overstating or understanding? Can you notice how your mind and body feel?
Before you go to sleep at night, take a few minutes and bring your attention to your breathing. Observe five mindful breaths.
Try one each day. What do you notice?
Enjoy exploring!
(Adapted from Segal Z., Williams M., Teasdale J. “Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression”)