Have you ever heard of the term ‘mindfulness?’ It simply means being aware of our environment and being receptive to how we choose to react to it in our day-to-day living when it comes to our health, the way we interact with others and ourselves. Hey, maybe you’re stressing because your broker caused you to lose money, regardless, here are some ways to implement mindfulness into your life to promote a calmer lifestyle. Even after you’ve lost money.
The Small Things
Let’s begin with the small things. One of the biggest contributors to chaos is failing to be thoughtful and present within our lives. When we create an awareness around how we do things, instead of doing them habitually, we begin to notice a sense of calmness.
- Eat Slower: Eat slower. There is power in letting your body and brain work at the same pace. This means letting your body process levels of hunger vs stuffing your face. Eating slower also allows you to taste the food you’re intaking. Along with taste, you’ll begin to notice the smell and be able to feel the texture of the food,this will give you an entirely new level of satisfaction when meal-time comes around.
- Simple Pleasures: When we say simple pleasures, we mean noticing the way your bed feels when you get into it at night, or maybe after you’ve just washed the sheets—noticing the feel, the smell, and other sensations that come with the thought of sleep. Other simple pleasures could involve watching the sunset, noticing how the ground feels when barefoot, and smelling freshly cut grass. These may sound silly at first, but they will instantly add a sense of calmness to your day when acknowledged.
- Find Inspiration: One of the hardest things about chaos is the need to be inspired, but what we fail to realize is having a lack of inspiration means we are detached from the environment. inspiration is everywhere, but when we get caught in the habit of going through the motions we end up unresponsive to what’s around us.
- The Slice of Cake: This is self-explanatory because we encourage you to eat the slice of cake—reward yourself—stop feeling mentally fatigued because you want to enjoy something you’ve taught your body to despise.
Calm People
This may seem harsh, but exclude the people from your life who are constantly nagging about what they don’t have or how badly life has been treating them. The truth is, life isn’t perfect and yes things can get ugly, but if you’re wanting to create some peace from stressful situations, you must surround yourself with people who will help you see the best in those situations.
More Isn’t More
- Single Tasks: Don’t take on too much. Taking on more than one task at a time can send the brain into overload, and your brain will give thanks if you assign it one task at a time. Sometimes, having more than one task is inevitable, but don’t over-crowd your to-do list, seriously, you’re creating unnecessary stress for yourself.
- Plan A Day of Nothingness: Doing nothing seems idiotic, right? Yes, but secretly we all crave to do nothing. In fact, we should all take a couple days out of our week to do absolutely nothing. Give your nervous system a chance to reset itself. Choose to meditate, binge-watch a show you want to catch up on, or read a book. Either way, don’t answer to the tasks you’d be performing otherwise.
- Organize: Keep yourself organized because the last thing the brain is good at, is decluttering clutter for you. The brain loves simplicity as much as it does complexity. Think about that.
- Problems Are An Illusion: Problems are illusions (okay, not all problems), but take a moment out of your day to differentiate the things in your life that are real problems (the ones that can be solved) and the things you’re making a big deal out of because drama is addicting (the things you can’t solve).
Living a calmer lifestyle can be a breeze, but only if mindfulness is implemented into our daily lives. By following all or some of these tips, you’ll begin to notice a more positive shift within your lifestyle.
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