How to Incorporate Mindfulness Into Your Daily Life

​Meditation is the most important activity to help you bring the benefits of mindfulness into your daily life.  Here are some additional activities that take only a few moments throughout the day and can help you reestablish mindfulness and wellbeing:

• Pause to check in with yourself a few times daily. Just notice your thoughts, physical sensations, and emotions. Then relax, open your awareness, and return to the task at hand. What thoughts and sensations accompany happiness, ease, stress, anger, sadness, and other states of mind?  It can be helpful to place a note or set a timer to remind yourself to pause and check in occasionally.

• Practice mindfulness whenever you have to wait.  Life is filled with waiting: waiting for the computer to load, waiting in line, waiting in traffic, etc.  You can change these from frustrating moments to opportunities to check in with yourself, increase awareness, and relax by practicing mindfulness.  Try bringing your attention to your body and breath whenever you have to wait.

• Be present with simple tasks such as brushing your teeth, showering, washing the dishes, or walking down the street. Can you let go of the temptation to text, read, listen to music, or get lost in thought?  Try tuning into the sensations in your body and world around you through using your senses.  How does this affect your mood?  It can be helpful to commit to mindfulness practice for one activity per day for a week or more such as mindfulness while showering or walking to work.

• Take a couple minutes at the beginning of a meal to notice how your food looks, smells, tastes, feels as you chew, and makes your body feel as you eat.

• Sit and listen to a song without any distractions, notice when your mind wanders, and gently bringing it back to the music.

• Do the image meditation described here.

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