Everyone should take stock of what their day is like. Your day is going to be different than the neighbor on the left and right of you. The neighbor on the left may have five kids, while the neighbor on the right is elderly but quite active.
What goes on in your day? Do you work outside the home and have a million things to do at work, before rushing to the grocery and then home to get the kids fed and ready for homework? Once you can write out a typical day, you can then come up with a plan for making mindfulness part of your day. Here are daily tips to review and pick the right ones for you.
1. Disconnect from your cellphone. It is a distraction in many forms. Unlike the phone of old which was attached to wall with buttons to push, your cellphone with all the apps, emails and notifications can be an overwhelming nuisance.
You want to incorporate mindfulness and stress relief into your life but is difficult when you are obsessed if the coffee shop you are visiting has Wi-Fi or not. At home, put your cellphone in a different room. Before you go to use it, ask yourself is it necessary to do so.
Spend the time without the phone, practising mindfulness as you enjoy that fruit snack. Let the berry you are eating, squirt the tangy juice into your mouth and hold it for a moment savoring the sweet flavor. Try sitting in a quiet room with a candle and just be mindful of the quiet surroundings and how the flame of the candle burns with orange, yellow and blue colors.
2. It is highly recommended to a have a number of journals that you can write in. Have a daily journal for the thoughts that come to mind. Pick up your gratitude journal and write what you are grateful for.
The mindful journal will help you to reduce stress and be clear about your life. In the mindful journal you can write down whatever feelings come to your mind. Reflect on why you feel the way you do and what effect does it have on your stress levels? Many people write from their heart into a mindful journal and use it as a brain dump to get all the thoughts out their head and onto paper.
Another process is writing down what you constantly think about. Is there a series of thoughts that always run through your head when you are working on big projects or talking to a significant other? When you write these down and come back to them at a later date, you can gain clarity on why you feel the way you do.
This will help you to mindfully solve any problems by not attaching a big weight to them. Instead, you look at them, ponder how significant they are and whether or not you need to find a way to address them or just let them drift away as a neutral feeling.
3. Traveling to work often brings stress. There may be a long commute or delayed trains, subways or buses. Take stock of how you feel during your commute as it may be something you have to do for a significant amount of years. Do you get agitated at other passengers, noise or cars cutting in and out of lanes. This is the time to be mindful and after doing a few calming breathes, ask yourself why you feel this way. Don’t allow emotion to enter into it. Instead move outside yourself as if you have a twin in the seat next to you. You can hear them saying, “Yes but how does it make you feel? Does it serve you in any way to feel like that? How can you let it go?”
This is something you can practise on every workday and you will start to notice that you no longer dread the alarm clock signaling that you have to get up and head out on a commute.
