The Non-Medicated Way to Be Happier
When Life Passes You By
You’re driving down the road, music playing, cars humming past. You somehow just KNOW you’re supposed to stop but you don’t consciously make the decision to turn your left blinker on and slow down….you arrive at your regular parking space and whip in on autopilot. You have no recollection of where your 35 minute drive went to. How did you even make it in one piece? If you think about it…it’s kind of scary how mindless motor vehicle operators can be. Don’t feel bad….your not alone and i’m not here to berate you and report you to your DMV. But, if you’re not careful, that kind of absent mindedness could become your life.
Everybody wants their life to mean something. To have something to show for the time they spent on this spinning rock. That is only possible when intentionality meets action. Mindfulness is the power and ability to stay focused in the present moment — without reliving the past, or worrying about the future.
Being mindful can help you focus on your real thoughts, feelings and sensations without forming any kind of judgements on them. That means you don’t let past experiences tell you what you will enjoy or be miserable about.
You don’t have to start dragging out your vowels like Dracula, dancing under the moon, or stare into a crystal ball. In fact no one needs to know you made this switch. (But, if they are attentive enough to your energy — they will notice anyway).
Coming up are 3 low-profile ways to practice mindfulness that won’t interrupt your day with hour long meditations. Because not everyone has the luxury of a nice therapeutic coloring sessions with the new adult coloring book (it would be nice though).
The Urgency of Mindfulness to a Mindless Generation
But first, Why should you want to be mindful? It takes self control and effort to retrain your mind to stay present…we LOVE feeling victimized or reliving the drama of past “what if’s”.
Most commonly, when people get in tune with themselves they learn what’s really going on. Why are they addicted to those feelings? What about the drama makes them feel significant? Why is there this resurgence of a habitual bad-habit that they WANT to lose? It’s a type of personal therapy. And it helps you get to the bottom of things. But the reality is, the entirety of our generation is mindlessly blind. Just going from one “hype” to the next without analyzing what they want to do. And that’s a problem. For our present.
Mindfulness doesn’t have to be a long, fancy or even an overt habit. When you take time to listen to what your present self is telling you, things change. You will become a more grateful person, a more attractive person, less influenced by your outer world’s circumstances ( likes, follows or comments). You become a happier person.
There has been a lot of recent studies on Mindful Attention. Turns out, practicing mindfulness helps regulate emotions. It lowers the chance of depression, increases resilience, and lowers the toxic control stress and anxiety have over your life.
Mindfulness
- More Optimistic -
- Improved focus
- Emotional Regulation
- Greater Follow-through (Finish what is started )
- Higher levels of satisfaction (with life, family, relationships, career/job)
- Improved attention
- Better memory
- Effective coping strategies when dealing with stress
- Less depressive episodes (and less severe)
How to practice mindfulness (techniques)
Teaching yourself to be mindful, has a slew of fulfilling side effects, each time your mind stray backward or forward in time, or relocates altogether, gently bringing it back to the now
- Watchful Awareness — think of something that occurs every day, or more than once daily.
Something you usually take for granted (brushing teeth, unlocking a door, surfing the web). Whenever you do the activity you choose — pause and hold on for some moments and be mindful of the place you’re in. The moment you are in.
How is this activity going to direct you? What other hands had a role in making it possible for you to do this task? If you do it absently and remember after the fact it’s not too late! Pause right as soon as you remember…recall the “here-ness” of the experience. Soon you will be able to do this with multiple things every day. Your dishwasher, smelling good food cooking, dog barking at the mailman…remember the blessing these things are to your life.
2. Mindful Paying Attention — open your ears to the sounds around you. Leave your judgment on those sounds
You are training your mind to be less swayed by past experiences and presumption. Past experiences influence a lot of the way we feel. A once loved song can be ruined by the fact you listened to it with an old boyfriend. You can overcome this by intentionally listening to sounds you have not heard before. Let it wash over you.
3. Mindful Involvement — The goal of this exercise is to bring out contentment in the moments and leak the persistent striving out of our systems.
It’s so easy to get caught up in striving. This makes for an anxious mind. To do this exercise choose a daily activity that has a routine to it, such as cleaning the house. As you move throughout each methodical action, be attentive to each detail you are doing….each brush of the broom, each pull of the vacuum, the washcloth wiping against the countertop.
Feel the emotions involved. Notice the muscles it requires to do this action. Some people can’t perform such a mundane task. Observe how your wrists figured out the most effective way to wipe down the mirror. Never be in a hurry, or focus on getting the task done. Notice all the steps it takes to make it through the whole routine.
Again, it takes time to level up to the place where your mind doesn’t wander during these exercises. When it does wander — gently bring it back to present.
**BONUS: Mindful Obligation — you have to identify 5 things you never fully appreciate. These things can be objects or people. They should be things that support your reality, but never get their due. Having a journal ready to take notes is sometimes helpful.
The Idea here is to give thanks for these things and elevate their relevance in your life. Focus on how they make your life possible. For example electricity powers a lot of what we depend on today. But do you realize how much? What kinds of things can you be grateful for that electricity makes possible?
Get serious about life today, and be mindful.
Alternative Medicine has known for centuries that Mindful attention is key to living each day to the fullest. “The days are long, but the years are fast” The old motherhood quote can go for life in general. Most of you reading this have about 50 years left on this earth. Maybe less. Some more…but even if you have 100 years left, it’s really a very short time.
If you’re in a place in life where you are tired of letting life pass you by and want to get more memories out of your minutes, It might be time to start practicing mindfulness strategies. Instead of getting better at grasping, fixing, striving, hardening, and shutting down, choose today to be your own best friend. Cultivate a friendliness toward yourself that notices the here and now.
That can relax in the unknown, and open up to vulnerabilities. For more alternative ways to take care of yourself, follow my Alternative Health: What I’ve Been Up To blog. If you’re an Alternative Health brand looking for a Direct Response Copywriter to write that next CONTROL package, follow the link and contact me today.
