#7 Be mindful
Being on holiday is always the best time to get some space to reflect. For me, being in breathtaking, snowy mountains breathing in clean, fresh air was the perfect time to consider what mindfulness means to me (so sorry not sorry for the indulgent photo) The word mindfulness has become a bit of a buzzword in recent times and there are many definitions but the one that resonates with me is the practice of paying attention In the present moment.
Life seems to be racing by very fast and we don’t always fully appreciate what is happening right now. So I have shared the ways that I am going to embrace mindfulness in the hope that it will keep me on track:
1. Listen attentively - Do you ever have a conversation and realise afterwards that you only really heard part of it because you were distracted with something else? I do and this is definitely something I want to work on - really listening and being attentive
2. Focus on one task - Being good at multi-tasking is not always a good thing. I am terrible for starting something else before I finish what I am doing (both at work and during down time)
3. Consider my words more carefully - Kind of linked to listening more attentively, I want to be more mindful about the words that I use in certain circumstances. As someone who is prone to over-analyse what others say myself, I appreciate that this works both ways!
4. Savour my food - I have always eaten far too quickly and far too often am bolting down food in front of my laptop or the TV or on the move. I am going to try and eat with more awareness, not only for digestion purposes but because I love food!
5. Live for the now - It is pretty pointless dwelling on the past as you cannot change it (FACT). What we should do instead is focus on what is happening now as that is all that matters
6. Minimise distractions - It’s hard to remember the days before email and mobile phones when we didn’t expect an instant response to everything. I find myself checking messages from numerous channels continually which definitely doesn’t help when you are trying to focus - so I am making a conscious effort to avoid distractions
7. Banish ‘what if?’ mentality - One of my tendencies is to worry too much about what might happen or could happen. This is not constructive so I want to focus much more on just doing the best I can NOW instead of analysing all the potential what if scenarios
8. Meditate every day - The ultimate way to practice mindfulness! This is something I have already been doing since the beginning of the year and I will be sharing how it’s going for me in a separate blog
Practising mindfulness regularly is a great way to improve general well-being. It can help reduce stress, improve emotionally alertness through attentive listening and clear communication, and increases self-awareness and the awareness of others. So I recommend you have a think about how you could be more mindful.
