Six Simple Mindful Life Hacks
By: Dr. Lisa Templeton, Ph.D.
It’s hard to address our inner world in a society full of external distractions and never-ending responsibilities. Yet, a little bit goes a long way when it comes to mindfulness. Just build small bits of attention and appreciation for your mind and body into your day to help ground and balance you. The key is to remember that the present moment always offers a gift.
In a very busy life full of constant tasks and activities, it’s so easy to deprioritize attention to our inner world; yet it is so extremely important. When we gently move back into the present moment and take brief amounts of time to practice, we can gain more focus and awareness of what is happening around and within us. We can find space in a world that can seem confining, and also identify and know ourselves more deeply, which offers the opportunity for empowerment, compassion, and self-love.
Here are six simple and brief practices you can do to gain more agency within and build some objectivity to broaden your inner perspective:
1) Engage your senses – take a few moments throughout your day to notice what you are smelling, tasting, seeing, feeling, and hearing. Be aware of what’s around and within you. Practice for 10-20 seconds a few times a day.
2) Practice mindful scrolling – Just before you get on social media, take a few seconds to ground into the present moment and notice what’s going on within you as you begin to scroll and engage. Listen and attend to the thoughts in your mind and emotions in your body. Take agency of your inner world, particularly while being bombarded with excessive information. Also, try the same practice when watching the news. Stay open-minded and objective and take breaks as needed to attune to yourself.
3) Take 3 deep slow breaths in and out. Take note briefly of how your body feels pre and post breaths. Deep breaths bring more oxygen into our limbs and therefore can offer a feeling of relaxation. Imagine on your in-breath, taking in care and love, while on your out-breath, letting go of what doesn’t serve you.
4) Give a little attention to your body. Your body moves everywhere with you and endures all that your mind puts it through. Be kind and attentive to it. Watch for negative judgments about any pain, cravings, emotions, and/or discomfort occurring in your body. Try setting an alarm to check-in for a 5-10 second perspective twice a day.
5) Stay present and listen to your thoughts. Take note of the dialogue going on internally as you task and move through life. Are you living in a mind where blossoms are growing, or a mind in conflict with yourself? Most of our thoughts are unconscious so you may not be aware of many thoughts until you begin to listen. Set an intention to listen with compassion and curiosity. If you notice a ‘Debbie downer’ in your head, stay assertive and kind – set loving boundaries on what you don’t want in your mind and start growing and cultivating what you do. Consider how you might speak to a loved one vs. yourself. Plant the seeds of love and compassion into your consciousness as often as possible.
6) Try a focusing exercise daily – we need guidance to keep our attention and focus strong, especially in such a distracting culture. A focusing exercise is a great practice for our brains on technology – like weights to help our brains gain muscle. First, choose a stimulus, any stimulus around or within you that piques your senses. For example, it could be the sound of the heater, the smell of coffee, the texture of a soft blanket or maybe the sensations in your hands. Choose something to focus on and stay there to the best of your ability. Set an alarm for 30 seconds and stay focused on that one stimulus. If (when) other thoughts come in, bring your focus back to the stimulus at hand and practice keeping other thoughts at bay. Remember that if you find yourself too distracted, you can always switch to another stimulus. For example, a barking dog or lawn mower can function as an interesting stimulus to focus on with curiosity. Continue to increase the time from 30 seconds to perhaps a minute or 2 minutes. We can do anything for a couple of minutes!
These life hacks for mindfulness along with strength and objectivity of mind are essential practices for life. Set your intention to try and then take on little bits at a time. Choose one or two of these practices at first and give it a try. Remember that the whole point is to practice noticing whatever is in the present moment without judgment, so just observe how the practices make you feel. If you can develop these small habits of mindfulness, you can change your life.