How to be more present with mindfulness

Be present with mindfulness. In this series of Mindful Monday, you’ll learn how incorporating mindfulness into your life will help you to become more present, and you’ll also learn to enjoy being present! You will receive background information, learn about the benefits and tips how to practice mindfulness.

Mindful Monday: enjoy the present

When your mind is full, be #mindful.

“In today’s rush we all
think too much,
seek too much,
want too much,
and forget about the joy
of just being.”
-Eckhart Tolle

In the rush of the day, it is so easy to forget to focus on the now, the moment, the present, because our minds wander off easily:

• “I still have to do this”
• “What is going to happen when this happens”
• “I really want this, because if not, my life is not complete”

When we’re able to focus on the present moment, we’re less likely to be caught up in worries about the past or future.

The benefits of practicing mindfulness

Practicing #mindfulness has so many benefits. These benefits can be physical or mental. A few of the scientifically proven benefits:

• It decreases stress. This wonderful for your mental and physical wellbeing, because stress has a massive impact on your body (bloodpressure, diseases, immune system) and mind (anxiety, fears, negative thoughts)
• It enhances resilience. In other words, understanding what and why you are feeling, reacting and behaving the way you do, helps you manage challenging situations.
• It increases emotional regulation. When you are able to identify stressful and anxious moments and turn them around and therefore you will be more in control of your feelings, thoughts and emotions.
• It improves gratitude, because where attention goes, energy grows. So, focus on what you have and how it makes you feel, and you will notice that you will get a more positive outlook on life.
• It increases focus, for instance, tools like the pomodoro technique will help you stay focused on your task instead of being distracted by social media and so.

By reading all the benefits, can you already feel the joy of being present? The joy of feeling in control, grounded, focused, grateful, relaxed?

As I wrote before about the scientifically proven benefits, here is a great article to read more about the scientific researches on mindfulness.

How to practice mindfulness

Practice makes perfect, they say. Don’t give up when you don’t get immediate results. Like learning a language, you need to train your brain. So, how to be more present with mindfulness?

1. Almost forcefully stop your thoughts and actions when you notice your mind has wandered off.
2. Bring your thoughts back to the present moment.
3. Pay attention to your thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations. What are you thinking, how do you feel, where are you feeling it in your body.
4. Write it down in a journal. Journaling helps you uncover patterns. This is how you learn to unlearn #patterns and learn new patterns!

A wonderful way to become more present is to go for a walk, stand still and smell the flowers. Unless you have hay fever.

About the photo

©Photo: Silke van Loenen, honeysuckle. On one of my walks in spring, I walked past by this plant and it smelled so good. Instead of continuing my walk, I stopped, returned and really took a conscious moment to enjoy the flowers and their scent.

Enjoy being present!

#mindfulness #burnoutprevention #resilience
#mentalhealthatwork #mentalhealth #bodyandmind