If you want to combat stress and keep your mind under control, you can utilise the ancient technique of mindfulness to do so. But there’s nothing otherworldly about it. You can think of mindfulness as a kind of exercise. Just like physical exercise, practising mindfulness every day is going to build something like a muscle, and the muscle that it is building is a kind of resilience in the face of your emotions and thoughts. It’s a simple case of doing it every day and building a practice with it. Let’s look at how you might bring mindfulness into your day in a few simple ways.
Set Regular Alarms
If you are really in need of taking some time out each day multiple times, then you might want to think about setting regular alarms in order to do so. You can then respond to those alarms by taking five minutes – or even just two minutes – to be mindful of what your mind is doing. The more you do that, the more that you will then find yourself doing it every day and in more and more moments throughout the day without even having to put in a special effort. That’s a very good sign.
Sit For Tea
If you want to put a little ceremony around it, you could do as the Chinese and Japanese do and sit for tea. Drinking tea has a long tradition around it of bringing mindfulness to the moment, and it’s a great way to de-stress from your day at the same time. If you really want to make this a regular thing, consider getting hold of some good quality pu erh tea and straining it in the traditional way. Simply sitting with your tea, not doing anything in particular, is bound to help you to be more mindful throughout the day.
Meditate Once A Day
Of course, meditation is a kind of formal session of mindfulness – sometimes, although there are actually many kinds of meditation which have nothing to do with mindfulness. But if you want to practice mindfulness meditation, then encouraging yourself to do one formal session of it a day is a great way to do so, and wonderful exercise for your mind. You can do it first thing in the morning or last thing at night, or whenever seems good for you, just so long as you make a point of keeping the habit going strong.
Remember The Temple Bell
The symbolism of the temple bell is that monks would hear it regularly throughout the day as a reminder to be mindful. You can easily replicate this with a bell in your home that goes off regularly, or you can even get a smartphone app that achieves the same thing, as well as a browser add-on that will do it too. This is going to encourage you to be much more mindful throughout your day, and so enjoy a more peaceful and engaged mind.
This is a collaborative post.
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