When we’re in a bad mood, we often wish that those sensations would just go away. It’s very normal for this to happen.
Being able to sit with difficult emotions can be tough, especially if we feel like we have no other choice except to act. There are a variety of ways we might distract ourselves from them, such as watching Netflix, working out, or eating Oreos.
Positive affirmations or self-talk in front of the mirror can also be effective in combating the blues.
However, suppressing our sentiments can actually increase their intensity and harm our physical and mental health, even if these activities are beneficial in the short term.
So how can we deal with our feelings in a healthy way rather than burying them? The practice of mindfulness, which is becoming aware of one’s own thoughts and feelings in the present moment, is one option.
Walking meditation is exactly what it sounds like: a sort of meditation practiced while walking, typically in a straight line or a circle.
In the park with your kids or on your way to work you can do it. You can even do it while you’re on your way to the grocery store.
Focusing on the weight of the vehicle, the roughness of the road, the sound of the tires against the gravel, and even the form and feel of the seat against your back, can help you enjoy the experience of driving a car more fully.
As a result, you’ll be able to scan your surroundings and become aware of anything from other vehicles and pedestrians to vegetation and skyscrapers. You may even improve your driving skills with enough practice.
Stay away from your phone while you’re getting ready in the parking lot, switch off your music, and put on your cosmetics.
We all know that multitasking is a bad thing, but what about single-tasking? It’s as simple as turning up to whatever task you’re working on with your whole self.
Concentrate your efforts on a single project at a time when using a computer. Close any browser tabs that aren’t relevant to the project you’re working on, even if you don’t want to.
This can help clear up brain space, and may even lead to laser-like focus.
Focus on the following to improve your practice:
how you breathe, how you sit or stand, how you feel in your clothes, and how you feel in the air are all examples of how you are experiencing your surroundings.
a person’s physical appearance and posture
You may make something you do every day into a mindful practice by incorporating it into your mealtime rituals.
The sizzle of your pan and chewing carefully so you can relish each bite are two simple ways to make mealtimes more mindful for yourself and those around you.
Other ideas for attentive eating include:
Try eating with your non-dominant hand to see how it goes.
Begin each meal by taking a few moments to savor the fragrances, flavors, and textures of your food. During meals, put your television and cell phone aside.
Meditation and environmental connection are two of the many benefits of gardening. A simple chore like planting seeds or watering flowers might help you focus on your goals.
Feel the soil’s texture with your palm when you’re doing that. Is it coarse or smooth? Is the air humid or dry? How hot or how cold is it right now? Be as if you were a kid again and enjoy the procedure as if you were playing.
Focus on your senses rather than your thoughts while you take in the weather. The coolness in the air is causing goosebumps, or is it the heat of the sun that is making your skin itch?
A scurrying squirrel or chirping bird can catch your attention. Toads and other squishy creatures are also common in the soil.
95 percent of our actions are performed on autopilot, which I term “fast brain.” That’s because brain networks underlie all of our habits, reducing the millions of sensory inputs each second to manageable shortcuts so that we can function in this crazy world. This world.
These default brain messages, like signaling superhighways, are so efficient that they often drive us to relapse into old behaviors before we can remember what we wanted to do.
Mindfulness, on the other hand, is a slow-brain process. You may take charge of your own destiny rather than relying on autopilot.
The thing is, you have to become used to it over time. When we engage our slow brains more frequently, they become more powerful.
Our gray matter, which is full of newly sprung neurons that have not yet been groomed for the speedy brain, gets activated every time we deliberately and intentionally perform something new.
There is a reason behind everything we do, say, or think. When we respond in unexpected ways, there is a gulf between the faster, unconscious impulses of the lower brain centers and the slower, conscious, wiser talents of the higher brain centers, such as the pre-frontal cortex.
Using a technique like this might help you align your conscious thinking with a primitive emotional drive that the lower centers are concerned about, since the unconscious brain is in charge of most of our decision-making and behavior in general.
Rewards, connections, meaning, and self-identity are just a few of the many factors that go into our decisions.
With an end goal in mind, it’s important to keep your underlying motives in mind as you work toward that goal. There is a great deal of power in making your day more mindful and compassionate in the face of adversity.
