What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is the foundation of self-compassion and has the potential to help people become aware of their difficulties, bring compassion to their lives with greater wisdom and the ability to respond with kindness.
Mindful awareness can be practised by bringing attention to hearing, seeing, touching, smelling, or tasting. It can be practised throughout the day, by becoming aware of what we are doing – take time to focus on the sensory moments you experience throughout the day.
In deliberately taking the time to allow yourself to focus on these moments you can slow down and tune into the sensations of mindful awareness rather than the thoughts about doing it. You can pause to feel the sunshine on your face and take a mindful breath.
See if you can choose an activity for each day, or for the next week, and practice paying attention whilst doing it. Maybe you’d like to choose one sensory experience to immerse yourself in the activity and savour it, such as:
This practice is designed to help you feel grounded and stabilised when you become upset or overwhelmed. Practicing this can help regulate strong emotions such as, frustration or even anger.
One of the easiest ways to calm and re-centre yourself during a stressful situation is simply to STOP.
You can use the STOP acronym as a brief mindfulness practice at any point of any day.
Stop what you are doing.
Take three deep breaths.
Observe what you are feeling in your body, your emotions and thoughts, relaxing or softening if needed.
Proceed with what you are doing.