Mindfulness, the opposite of time-traveling

You are here

… spend time in this moment

Have you been doing a lot of time-traveling lately? Have you been traveling to the future or the past through worrying, planning, or trying to figure why something happened? Have you noticed that when we time-travel we can be engaged in activities in an automatic way? I have driven myself to places without an awareness of how I got there. Yikes!

Mindfulness is an alternative to time-traveling. A very simple definition of mindfulness is “the practice of staying in the present without judgment”. This behavior has been associated with many benefits such as decreased stress, improved sleep, decreased pain, and improved blood pressure management. You can practice mindfulness through formal meditation or during normal daily activities. Curious?

Being mindful requires that you

Focus on right now – pay attention to the outside, not the inside (your thoughts), use your senses, observe, hear, feel, smell, taste

Accept the present as it is – maintain the attitude of an observer, no judgement or analysis needed

Be gentle to yourself – gently guide yourself back into observing, your mind will drift back to your thoughts (and your to-do lists)

Some ideas

Breathing mindful meditation: use the blog on breathing and pay attention to your breathing, how the air comes in through your nose and out through your mouth, expands your lungs, notice the temperature of the air and what you hear around you

Yoga: pay attention to the breathing and how the muscles feel in the poses

Daily tasks: slow down, use all your senses, observe what you are doing as if it was the first time

Good handout to keep around: https://www.therapistaid.com/worksheets/mindfulness-exercises.pdf

Want to involve the family? Here is a schedule to download: https://www.therapistaid.com/worksheets/family-mindfulness-schedule.pdf

I encourage you to consider practicing mindfulness throughout the day.

Take a few minutes at a time to be in the present without judgement and be gentle to yourself.

your advocate,