Meditation, yoga, tea ceremonies, mindfulness, forest bathing. All kinds of ways to find peace in our daily busy lives. After all, there is a lot to do in a day.
In addition, you are already busy in your head with tomorrow, the upcoming weekend or are you still thinking about yesterday.
Few people allow themselves moments of silence. While mindfulness has so many scientifically proven benefits. Hopefully, with this article, we can convince you to try mindfulness.
What is Mindfulness
When you think of mindfulness, you might immediately think of meditation. Meditation sometimes scares people off. They don't see themselves sitting cross-legged on the floor doing nothing for an hour.
Meditation is about silence. Silence in your body and your mind. And that is very difficult if you have never done that before.
Mindfulness is all about awareness and attention. Pay attention to what you feel, what is happening around you, how you feel and what you think.
You stand still, as it were, and take in the situation in yourself and around you. Thoughts may come and go. As if you see them driving by in cars. Sometimes a car stops and you can get in, but you don't. You let him drive through again.
Proven benefits of mindfulness
The benefits of mindfulness are great. Much bigger than you think. It's not just about a sense of peace in your head. That's just the beginning. Here are the top 5 benefits that we briefly explain afterwards:
- Mindfulness reduces feelings of stress
- Mindfulness lowers your blood pressure
- Mindfulness increases your concentration
- Mindfulness helps with anxiety
- Mindfulness makes you happier
Less stress
Most people turn to mindfulness because they are looking for a way to feel less stressed. The bad thing about stress is that it can cause all kinds of physical complaints. Or can result in psychological problems, such as depression. Many people come to the doctor with stress-related complaints.
By practicing mindfulness, you reassure your body. Literal. Mindfulness activates the part of your nervous system that provides relaxation and recovery.
Lowers blood pressure
People with high blood pressure are more likely to have a heart attack, stroke and heart failure. In most cases, high blood pressure is caused by an unhealthy lifestyle. Too much stress also falls under an unhealthy lifestyle. People with a lot of stress often also eat less healthily, take less time to exercise or look for another way of relaxation by smoking or drinking.
Increase concentration
With all those thousands of thoughts in your head, it can be difficult to concentrate. As a result, you are dissatisfied after a working day. Someone who has difficulty concentrating often also has difficulty controlling impulses and emotions. Your automatic response is to react or act immediately to a thought, a sound, or something else in your environment. What you are doing at that moment, you do less well, less quickly or not at all. Whether that is reading a book, studying or exercising. Your productivity and your memory decline.
By practicing awareness you teach yourself to focus better. A beep from your phone will no longer provide the response to look immediately. Of course this takes a lot of practice. Think of it as a workout for the brain.
Helps against anxiety
Between all the thoughts in our head, there are often worrying thoughts. Thoughts that are not reality, but arise from worry, uncertainty or fear. We worry about past events and what is yet to come. And when you're not feeling so well, we usually assume the worst. What if…
Mindfulness helps you deal with these worrying thoughts. Not only can you leave the thoughts for what they are. Namely, only thoughts that 'drive by'. But your brain also changes. The part that causes fear becomes less active through mindfulness.
Makes happier
Mindfulness helps you to dwell on what is. And there is often a lot of beautiful things around us that you can be thankful for. They don't have to be big things. You can be thankful for the sun, a chirping bird, for your house, for your body… You can be grateful to someone else, be proud of an achievement or just be thankful for giving yourself a moment of mindfulness.
Mindfulness doesn't have to be done sitting down. It is also possible during a walk. While eating, exercising, traveling. This can be even easier, because it makes it easier to pay attention to something.
Ultimately, the result is that you experience more attention, gratitude and admiration for the things around you and within yourself. Things you may not have noticed before. And so you will feel happier.
Mindfulness for the first time
Sometimes the threshold to start mindfulness can feel big. Can I do this? What should I do? When do I have time for it? Throw all these thoughts aside. You don't have to schedule Mindfulness. You can practice it anywhere. Start in the traffic jam, the train, on the toilet. While brushing your teeth… everything is possible.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- What sounds do I hear around me? Birds, voices, a siren or a radio?
- What do you see around you?
- What does my body feel? Do you feel wind in your hair, do you have goosebumps, do you feel stiff?
- How's your breathing? Does he go fast or slow? Is it deep or shallow?
- What thoughts come to your mind during these questions?
It is important to remember that no thought is bad or forbidden. Everything may be there. If a worrying thought occurs, don't think 'no, I can't think about this'. But acknowledge that it's a worrying thought and then shift your focus back to your breath, a sound, or something else.
It is also important not to make demands on yourself. Demands such as, "I must practice mindfulness every day," or "Today I must hold out for at least 10 minutes." These are high and unattainable requirements, especially in the beginning.
Mindfulness therefore works best when you link it to existing habits and activities. As you practice more and experience the effects, mindfulness will become more and more a part of your life.
Are you going to try? Then grab a nice cup of matcha and enjoy your moment mindfully.
