by Alycia Gordan
In the journey of life, complications, pressure, and difficulties go side by side. We are always in a hurry to do things, and sometimes they consume our energy to the point of exhaustion. We start to anticipate things long before they have to happen. Among this chaos, it is common to forget the importance of the present moment.
Here is where you should pause, and reflect on your life story. Start to adopt some habits of well-being and calmness to relax your brain. This is the idea behind mindfulness. It works to slow you down from hastening tasks, live your life to the fullest and lastly, stay happy with what you have.
What do we mean by ‘Mindfulness’?
It is like awareness. The person who embraces mindfulness also conquers mental, physical, emotional, environmental and spiritual aspects of everything that befalls their life. When you are Mindful, you are well-aware of whatever is running inside your head and outside in your life during your life. How to attain this trait?
By living in the current moment like it will never return.
This also revolves around the idea of connectivity between the brain and heart. To accomplish it, your heart and brain need to be functioning together, focusing on the same thing. Once I stopped affecting my brain with the thoughts of past and fears of the future I started climbing the ladder towards mindfulness.
Now, don’t confuse mindfulness with judgmental observation. Apart from being present mentally in the situations, your brain doesn’t have to pull off judgments. I started trying to observe without throwing criticism. Mindfulness became a different sort of spiritual meditation for me.
To practice meditation is to move towards a life that is full of sound conversations and self-reliance. As mentioned before, you can only start by pausing at the moment and reflecting on your current state.
Here’s how you can live your life fully with mindfulness:
Simplicity in life:
The first rule of being mindful: Declutter all the unnecessary mayhem that keeps you tangled.
This might even involve clearance of material possessions. Once I opened my eyes to this aspect of my life, I saw things differently. No amount of brain tests could figure this out for me. It can vary from the TV show you choose to watch the furniture color at your home. Anything (and anyone) that upsets your peace go has to. Simplifying your lifestyle can be a very time-taking process, unless you are already determined to practice it, no matter what. There are little things that you can change to simplify your lifestyle like I got rid of clothes that didn’t fit or wrote things down instead of leaving things to memory.
Connecting peace with mindfulness:
When you practice mindfulness, you will see that it's become a positive extension or progression of a normal routine. Things started making sense for me, like never before. Once I started meditating for 10 minutes a day before work, I slowly became more organized in my morning routine, and my life changed!
You disturb your peace by worrying about coming events. Be it a dinner at night, a last week’s task, meetings scheduled for tomorrow or some bills coming up. Planning about the future is necessary, and so is a good relationship with the past, but the choice of letting both affect your present will always be unhealthy. For example, don’t scold your kid for making noise while you make a presentation, find a way to make them sit with you and enjoy your time doing work.
Energy:
When we talk about energy, we talk about both physical and mental energy. This is the fuel that will drive your day and provide a direction. When your body lacks literal amounts of energy, you will automatically slow down with the tasks of life. Agitation in life makes you sick and can even lead to mixed dementia. This can change around by nothing but a smart organization of your daily routine. I am so proud of being organized and keeping a weekly calendar at hand. An organized person never gets agitated, because their life is in perfect shape.
Relieve stress:
To save yourself from stress, you need to remove its triggers. Figure out the cause of annoyances. The causes can be very simple or very disturbing. Sometimes, their removal can be hard too. To adjust to a situation that is not in your hands, you need to focus on what is in your hands. Much of my stress accumulated from false beliefs, or when I continued to overthink something that never happened!
Some people delay tasks to such an extent that it becomes constant stress. I kept a diary to write down the last time I got annoyed at something and then overview the list to figure out solutions.
Set your priorities right:
This is a simple task, but one that requires the immense organization of your life. Don’t forget the priorities of your life to please others. This eventually weakens our mindfulness and well-being. I arranged my tasks, meetings, situations, events, and ideas according to the level of priority. Like canceling off weekend plans to do something that may please your boss or buying an expensive dress just so your colleagues will like you more is a bad idea. Same is the situation with tasks in the day. You will find out the beauty of life when you live it according to your priorities.
Relationship status:
Anything that affects your relationship with your loved ones should go. Your relationships hold a place in your life. Mindfulness can be achieved by dwelling in a circle that is supportive and understanding. The toxic environment gives birth to problems and drags you away from inner peace. Communicate your problems and disturbances to a loved one like your spouse or parent, and create an atmosphere of building each other up.
Last word:
This is the start of self-attainment and an amazing journey towards mindfulness. Time is precious, don’t waste it in the things that kill you from the inside and don’t let you live the life you desire. Be present at the moment and try to be productive in your routine. The more time you give yourself to procrastinate, the more will you fall in the dungeon of sorrow and misery. Try to look out for people who give you appreciation and satisfaction and see a wholesome life unfold in front of you.
ABOUT Alycia Gordan
Alycia Gordan is a freelance writer who loves to read and write articles on healthcare technology, fitness and lifestyle. She is a tech junkie and divides her time between travel and writing. You can find her on Twitter: @meetalycia