You’ve probably heard of the term “Mindfulness” and have a rough idea of what it means.
We’re going to look into the meaning of mindfulness and how to be happy practicing it.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is when our mind is fully present in the moment. It involves being aware of our senses, thoughts, and feelings without judging them.
Every moment is an opportunity to practice mindfulness. The more senses involved in an action, the easier it is to stay mindful.
We can also guide our senses to become aware and mindful. You may wonder am I being mindful while reading this article?
Here is a step by step guideline to read mindfully:
First, intently look at the information in front of you:
- How colorful, bright, and large is the screen?
- Is the text legible and spacious or small and crammed?
- Are your eyes easily following along or making an effort to track the words?
Second, notice how your head and body feel:
- Are your eyes, head, and body relaxed, tense, or tired?
Then, take a deep breath.
What do you think about the information? Observe your thoughts without judging them.
- Are you enjoying the process?
- Is it interesting to focus your attention on what you are reading?
- Are you becoming impatient, bored, and ready to jump ahead?
If you followed these steps your mind was fully engaged in the reading process.
You may start all over again to see if there is any change in how you feel or think.
When we don’t pay attention to the present moment, we go through life distracted by thoughts and worries about the past or future.
If you’ve been asking the question, ‘how to be happy in life’, mindfulness may be one skill that will help.
Paying attention and being aware of what happens around us can make a huge difference to our thought patterns and subsequently our actions.
Difference between Mindfulness and Meditation
Mindfulness and meditation may seem closely related, but they are not the same thing.
We just went over mindfulness. Now lets’s take a look at meditation.
Meditation is something you STOP and DO as an action.
It’s the act of creating space in your mind by slowing down and focusing on one thing such as your breathing, the space between your thoughts, a word, a sentence or a burning candle.
Mindfulness on the other hand is a state of BEING; constantly being aware of what is happening in the present moment.
For example:
- watering the garden
- eating some food
- exercising
and just being present in the moment without any other thought.
Click here to find out how to be happy practicing meditation.
How to include Mindfulness in your everyday life
Start by being aware of what is happening around you or what you’re doing at any moment in time.
This will take some practice.
Start with a task that involves most of your senses such as eating.
Begin by intently looking at the food.
Notice the color, shape, and size.
Smell it by taking a deep breath.
Take the first bite and notice the taste, texture, and consistency.
Is there any sound involved in biting or chewing?
Be aware of the different sensations involved.
Repeat with the next bite.
Eating mindfully will help you to feel happy while achieving your goal of eating healthy food.
Become mindful while completing any activity that you enjoy and involves most of your senses such as walking, gardening, or playing with your pet.
It takes some practice to include mindfulness into activities that you find boring or dislike. Let’s tackle these last.
You may also practice mindfulness by intently becoming aware of your surroundings and how your body feels at any time. For example when you are in a shopping mall:
- Observe people as they come and go without judgment
- Pay attention to what you see, hear, smell, and feel
- Notice how your body feels as you inhale and exhale
Noticing the details in your everyday life will help you to become more mindful and as a consequence you will feel inner peace and clarity of mind.
This is how you can include mindfulness in your everyday life regardless of what you are doing.
How to be Happy Practicing Mindfulness
Our everyday hustle and bustle creates emotional tension, worries, and anxiety.
We are constantly overloaded with information. From unhealthy food choices to the ultimate weight loss program.
There is extensive research about the benefits of mindfulness and the regulation of our emotions.
Practicing mindfulness will reduce stress and increase our feelings of calmness and happiness.
Mindful attention to our everyday life, prevents mindless impulses and facilitates self-regulation. This helps with keeping up with our health, relationships, and emotional well-being.
Imagine how happy we would feel if we would consistently make the right decisions for ourselves instead of impulsively reacting to what happens around us.
Specifically, mindfulness can facilitate happiness directly by adding vividness and clarity to present experiences. Thus, this encourages closer sensory contact with life experiences without any discriminatory thought whatsoever.
Concentrate on the moment.
Don’t spend too much time thinking about the past or the future, as this can make you unhappy. We tend to keep struggling through our daily busy lives without taking the opportunity to find stillness. Consequently, we miss out on many opportunities to feel happiness.
Though I’ve gotten much better at meditation, mindfulness is the everyday aspects of my life is something that I have certainly been trying to improve on. This is a great post for tips on how to do that, which I’ll definitely be incorporating into my routine! Thank you!
it is so true once you start to be present, you begin to notice all the things you didn’t pay attention to before. Mindfulness is a choice but with daily practice, it can become a habit, something that we do without even thinking about.
I am reading a lot about mindfulness. Although i’ve been meditating for a while now, i agree with you, one need to always practice mindfulness till it becomes second nature. Great tips.
Good suggestion. I agree with you. I practice meditation almost every day. It calms your mind and refreshes your soul
for it feels like mindfulness and happiness are very tightly connected. It is not easy to be mindful without being happy and mindfulness helps you to become happier per se.
I love everything about this great post! Only recently I have discovered mindfulness and now my entire family practices it! It has been great
Great blog..! I often skip some parts of what I read to see if it would be so interesting. But this one got me so engaged. I read it from the title to the very last sentence. Love it.
Meditation really helps me a lot to be calm and to relax. Mindfulness is something that I need to improve in my life.
This is great. I feel like we sometimes get so used to our routine that we are just robots, not even thinking about what we do!
This guide reinforces the notion of mindfulness in most basic tasks and we call use it at the most basic level.
I think a lot of people aren’t mindful, and I know that there are places in my life I am not mindful of things either. I wish people thought more intentionally instead of just acting out or saying things without thinking. These are all great things to think of for everyday life.
I have learnt new thing from you. Seem like mindfulness is a deeper version of mediation.
Mindfullness is such an important part of my life. It helps me manage my anxiety.
Some excellent reminders here to make sure that we’re all living our best life!
Meditation is one of my past time routine and I haven’t try Mindfulness. I guess I need to do this for more balance life. I learned a lot.
Mindfulness is important. I see it as being tuned to one’s emotions, to others, and to one’s environment. It may sound like a small thing but it goes a long way as having mindfulness can avoid bigger problems and I think it makes our lives less complicated.
I try to be mindful of others because of how much unmindfulness angers me. I hate seeing people just being apathetic and not caring how their words or actions affect everyone around them.
The past and the future can be quite overwhelming. It’s really important for everyone to practice mindfulness, so that they can exist in the moment. Thanks for this.
Thanks for sharing these helpful tips which will be useful to all those who read this and serve as an inspiration to practice mindfulness to improve happiness.
Thank you for sharing. It was interesting read and I have lot to think about x
Laura
This is really helpful for me. I definitely need to practice mindful eating and slow down a bit.
It really is a good thing to try to practice and do on a regular basis. It feels so free when you are present and your mind isn’t all over the place. You are only there in that moment right that second.
Meditation is so important we need to take time to rest and relax. Mindfulness is not difficult we just need to remember to do it.
Thank you for this post. I need to practice mindfulness more in my life.
Meditation is SO important! I’ve been working on practicing it and although I’m not there yet I want to be. Thanks for sharing.
Such great tips! I was thinking the other day how I am teaching my daughter mindfulness but I don’t practice it the way I should!
I’ve been hearing so much about the practice of mindfulness. The whole idea behind the concept makes total sense. I just call it “stop what you’re doing and pay attention.” Lol!
Typically when someone talks about the importance of mindfulness, my mind goes straight to meditation and therapy, and so on. I love how you brought attention to how important this is for food and other things like that as well!
Wow, I would love to practice mindfulness for the holiday. Gives me peaceful, fun and exciting vibes! Lavern Moore
Self care is really important and out of that Meditation is the most important one.
Very nicely written post
such an inspiring article, this is worth sharing to all of my friends, im sure it’ll light up their mood hah :))
this article is full of information that I really needed 👍🏻 this is worth sharing for other to see
I’ve been practising mindful meditation and I loved the peace. Anyway, practising just mindfulness sounds even better. You’d literally learn to appreciate life in it’s fullness. I should try this. I feel like it also makes your senses more alert as you keep on doing it longer, right?
My husband and I definitely need to practice this. If mindfulness is when our mind is fully present in the moment, then we may need to practice a little more outside of our monthly date nights, LOL.
I need to be better about practicing mindfulness in my own day to day living.