Thanks to my company, I was fortunate to have been able to watch a webinar called “Mindfulness in Everyday Life” from WellnessConcepts. Here are some of my takeaways:
People have more negative thoughts than positive thoughts. They tend not to obsess about positive things.
People fixate on past events. We replay scenarios in our minds. Sometimes as it was, sometimes rewritten with a better ending. “Would have”, “should have”, “could have”, etc.
We also let our minds go to the future, worrying about events that haven’t occurred yet. Almost nothing will work out exactly as we planned, and that’s okay.
Mindfulness helps us to focus on the present: our ability to be in the present moment, physically, mentally, and emotionally.
It’s also a powerful tool to help create or change habits. It helps us know what we are doing or not doing, and to focus on what we need to do to get where we want to go.
Mindfulness helps us reduce stress, blood pressure, and anxiety, increases creativity and productivity, and improves sleep quality.
Mindfulness helps us:
- to be non-judging
- to have more patience (allowing things to unfold in their own time)
- to see things with a beginner’s mind, rather than with preconceived notions
- to trust in our own intuition
- to accept what is
- to let go of the past and move forward
We all have mindless habits. Many of those are helpful. If we didn’t operate based on mindless habits, we would have to think about every single thing we do – even every breath we take. Other mindless habits are harmful, or better handled mindfully. For example, it’s better to eat only when we are hungry. And many of us check email and social media far too frequently, often in a mindless way.
To be more mindful, assess your daily activities. Try a one-day journal, take a 15-minute video of yourself, or ask people closest to you. Then, evaluate which habits you are doing intentionally and which not.
Be well,
David