How to cultivate Mindfulness practice in daily life

Practising the art of mindfulness trains your mind to stay alert and live in the moment. You may have noticed that our happiest memories are of the time when we are living in the moment. All our cherished memories comprise of talking to a loved one, being on a vacation and so on.

Is living in the moment really this great? Based on recent researches, the answer is yes.

Being mindful is about experiencing each moment in all its vividness without letting thoughts and other distractions clouding the experience.

Mindfulness at home: Boosts health and immune system

Mindfulness has changed and improved the lives of millions of individuals all over the world. In a 2013 study, it was reported that mindfulness meditation has beneficial effects on individuals who have anxiety and helped reduce stress reactivity in people with an anxiety disorder.

Introducing mindfulness to your daily routine isn’t difficult. You don’t need to have an hourlong meditation session to feel the positive effects of meditation. Even 2 minutes are enough.

- Try to be mindful while doing the everyday task as ordinary as walking from one room to another. Make it a habit to count your steps, observe your surroundings and just focus on what you are feeling.

- Similarly, be mindful while eating by focusing on your every bite instead of just going through the motion of eating.

Mindfulness at work: Boosts creativity and problem-solving skills

In a Gallup Survey “ How Millennials Want to Work and Live” only 29% of millennials felt engaged at work. These figures are troubling because millennials make up 40% of the current US workforce and will be 75% of the workforce by 2025, and if effective measures are not taken soon, it will affect the organizational efficiency in future.

Companies, including Aetna, and Google have been offering mindfulness-based programs to their workforce. Google, since 2007, has been offering its popular 7-week training course called “Search Inside Yourself." The training consists of three parts: attention training, self-mastery, and creating mental habits. The participants learn how to better relate to themselves and others. Positive behavioural changes like improved self-knowledge and the ability to listen to others have been reported.

Mindfulness is known to enhance creativity and problem-solving skills. In a 2011 study, it was found that students who meditated during the break were able to solve more problems after the break compared to students who didn’t practice meditation.

Practising mindfulness at work helps you be more efficient and enjoy the tasks as you perform them.

- Focus on the task at hand. This will allow you to finish tasks quickly – thus helping you be more productive.

- Perhaps you get stressed easily or maybe you are prone to procrastinate a lot? We engage in poor work habits without even realizing and here mindfulness will help you. Be more mindful of your responses to various situations and challenges during the work to alter them for the better. Whatever your bad habits, once you become mindful of them, you will be more likely to quit them.

To conclude, living mindfully is a choice. A choice you can make to live a deeply enriched and fulfilling life.

It helps you stay rooted in the moment, prevents your thoughts from wandering and allows you to enjoy the perks of health, productivity and, most importantly, the joy of experiencing the moment.