How To Practice Mindfulness: Try This Easy Technique First.

These series of weekly posts, about mindfulness techniques, will explain one technique per week in hopes that you (and me) will put them into practice, and may be check in next week to see how that went.   

First things first...What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is being aware of your thoughts, your body, and feelings. It involves being in the present moment, with the experience, in a non judgmental way.  

What is it good for?

It's a powerful healing tool used for stress reduction, anxiety, sleep problems and many other clinical conditions.

How to Start? Easy Technique First.

I'd say, in order to ease into mindfulness, practice Informal Mindfulness. Have you ever multi tasked your way into the dining room, bringing more than you can handle to the table, only to realize, a few seconds later, that you have dropped half of what you were carrying and even managed to hit your thumb against a chair? (?!) I have! 

Informal mindfulness would be the exact opposite to multitasking. Single-tasking is achieved by doing one thing at a time and being fully present, paying attention to what ever it is that you are doing at a specific moment in time.

Leave the autopilot for another day. Start practicing mindfulness by engaging all your senses and be fully present when you pet your dog, drink your favorite cup of coffee, play a card game with your kids, or even do the dishes. Breathe, inhale and exhale peacefully while you are at it. Be fully present. Acknowledge moment to moment sensations. 

Put this into practice, cultivate mindfulness, by focusing your attention on your sensations during your everyday activities, and see what good things this technique unfolds. (No more thumb hitting for me, please!)

Stay tuned for more formal techniques next week! Have you ever practiced mindfulness? Are you keen on multitasking :/? 

P.S. Cultivating Well Being Series