3 Simple Ways To Practice Mindfulness In Your Day To Day

Getting started in the practice of Mindfulness is taking the step towards a better quality of life. However, achieving this is not always easy since we need to adapt this philosophy of ancient roots to these modern times. To achieve this we have multiple paths and strategies: we just have to find the one that best suits our needs, our day to day.

We have to admit it: most of us are attracted to Mindfulness, and not because it is fashionable, not because we have been told about its practices or because we find this word in almost every book, in every magazine or self-help article. . It is something revulsive and above all, useful.

However, our daily life drags us with its obligations, with its tight schedules and our always busy gaze. We cannot take more hours a day to go to a center where we can learn, we cannot take time from where we do not have and therefore, we tell ourselves that meditation is definitely not with us.

It’s a mistake.  There are those who start in their own home, following the guidelines of a book or even an online course. Furthermore, there are those who do not conceive of staying immobile, those who cannot integrate into the dynamics of a classroom with other people. To do this, you have the option of meditating while doing sports, while walking.

As we can see, Mindfulness is always there, within reach of our mind …

Mindfulness in modern times, in times of movement

Times change but the roots of our philosophy, our spirituality and that exceptional legacy contributed by Mindfulness not only remain, but are more necessary than ever. Now, given the current complexity of our way of life …  How and in what way can we learn to develop a mindfulness? How to learn to meditate, to breathe and to make contact with the “here and now”?

• Rohan Gunatillake is a creative who is revolutionizing the field of Mindfulness for a very specific aspect: conceiving meditation in a dynamic, active way thanks to new technologies or even through sports.

• This author explains to us how and in what way we have changed. Our needs are now more intense, our worlds chaotic, but our learning channels are broader: the Internet and new technologies bring us closer than ever to the field of personal growth and initiate us even in the world of meditation.

• Rohan Gunatillake calls it “urban meditation.” Because although it may surprise us, the urban environment and our work and digital culture is what defines many of us today. What need is there to escape to a natural retreat for 10 days to learn to meditate? If there is no possibility, we have our own home, work and those wonderful technologies capable of teaching us to connect much more with our reality …

In this dynamic world we are all part of the movement. However, we must not make mistakes, because Mindfulness is also a mobile practice: we become magnificent receptors of the present moment, of each of its wonderful nuances, its oscillations, its changes, its smells, tastes, sensations….

Ways we can get started in Mindfulness

As Daniel Goleman said at the time, attention is a muscle that we must work daily to be more receptive to what surrounds us as well as what happens inside us. However … how to achieve it if we barely have time? Can we really learn to meditate once a week by attending a class from 6pm to 7pm?

Well, there will be people who will undoubtedly succeed but there are many who go to these classes out of curiosity and end up abandoning them after a few days because it does not work for them, because they cannot control their erratic mind and find that perfect point of balance with themselves. where everything else takes a back seat.

Now, if this practice of Buddhist origin with more than 2,500 years of antiquity has reached the West it is not by chance, it is because scientists like Dr. Kabat-Zin -among others- know and understand that  our demanding and demanding society accelerates us, and therefore we need the help and benefits of Mindfulness.

Mindfulness at work

Companies like Apple, Google, Nike or eBay already apply Mindfulness in their work on a day-to-day basis. It is clear, however, that for this technique to be effective we would undoubtedly need an environment and a labor policy that facilitates its integration, but in reality, it is not that complicated to carry out. These would be the guidelines:

• Get to work without rushing (you may not make it the first week, but little by little it will be possible)
• Take 5 minutes to position yourself, to structure the day, to become aware of what you are going to do, how you feel.
• Breathe deeply and become aware of the here and now, of your body, of your postures and of possible tensions.

• Take a 5 minute break every 40 minutes to meditate, to breathe, to reconnect with your own self.

Meditate while you walk

Ideally, every day we “give ourselves” half an hour of walking, half an hour of walking where at a fast pace and with comfortable clothes, we train not only our body, but also our mind in the basic principles of Mindfulness. These would be the main guidelines:

• He begins to walk at a normal pace. Little by little  you must find the rhythm that is most relaxing, most cathartic and liberating for you. There are those who walk at a slow pace and those who decide to start a faster march.

• It is time to focus your attention on some aspect. Visualize your mind as if it were a flashlight that directs its light on a specific aspect and then on to another : first your breath, then the sensation of your feet when they touch the ground, later the wind that caresses your skin … Focus your attention on those aspects in a cyclical way, first one and then another.

• Little by little you will realize that you no longer need to focus your attention on each of these aspects of your body.  After a few days the focus of your flashlight will be so wide that you will perceive everything at once.

Mindfulness at home

If you are one of those people who is not comfortable in a classroom or following the guidelines of a face-to-face facilitator, or even lacks time to attend a face-to-face course, don’t forget that  we always have books and online courses at our fingertips. . Thanks to them we can learn the basics of Mindfulness at home.

To do this, it never hurts to follow these guidelines:

• Choose a space, a place and a time of day that best suits your needs to practice meditation. Remember that you must commit to it firmly and willingly, because it must be continuous work.
• Start with 10-15 minutes. Little by little, as you become fluent, you can dedicate more time to it.
• Choose the technique that best suits your needs.
• Be patient and don’t expect immediate results. Mindfulness takes time and commitment.

Times change and despite our dynamic and demanding lives we will always have this interesting and beneficial practice at our fingertips. We just need to find the path that best suits us, the one that is the most comfortable, the closest. Let’s expand our experiences and take the step to the knowledge that Mindfulness provides us.