Learning Mindfulness techniques can be one of the best gifts you give yourself. Mindfulness can greatly reduces stress, overwhelm, and anxiety. And it also increases happiness. Our Registered Counsellor Nancy Kearnan shares an easy to learn technique for mindfulness in Part 2 of her article below.
Mindfulness: Part 2
Sometimes when we are feeling anxious or overwhelmed, our thoughts can feel like they are bouncing around our heads like a ping-pong ball in an empty room. Concentrating on being mindful can help us to settle our thoughts by forcing us to focus on the here and now.
One of the easiest exercises to do mindfulness is to be mindful of your five senses. This exercise can be done almost anywhere (especially if you have something to eat with you). It is done by spending a few minutes with each sense, remembering to just notice what you are experiencing without judging it.
Vision: Wherever are, find something to look at: whether it be a picture you have with you, or just looking out the window. Observe as many details as you can. Maybe you are watching a bird flying across the sky, watch it until you no longer see it or look at every detail of the picture you are holding.
Hearing: Close your eyes wherever you are and pick out as many sounds as you can possibly hear. Usually by mindfully listening we can pick out many more sounds than we think we can hear. Or, if you are listening to music, concentrate on the words, the different instruments, etc.
Touch: Concentrate and pay attention to how your body is feeling in this moment: how your breaths rise and fall and your lungs inflate and deflate, how your muscles feel, how they feel if you attempt to relax them, etc.
Smell and Taste: Smell something pleasant. It could be the food you are eating or drinking or a perfume or flower. For example, if you are drinking a Chai Latte, attempt to pick out the different spices of the tea, the smell of the milk, etc. If you are using the Chai Latte for taste: drink the Latte and experience each spice, the taste of the milk, the feeling of the froth, the temperature of the drink, how it feels on your tongue, in your mouth and how it feels going down your throat. Observe the aftertaste, if there is any.
By doing the simple mindfulness exercise above, we can experience calmness in thoughts and body and it can help us deal with difficult emotions and situations.
Part 3 will discuss the science and research about mindfulness.
This is great stuff, Nancy! Looking forward to reading Part 3 🙂
Nancy would love to work with you.
She works with Adults, Kids 2 yrs & older and Youth 13+.
Nancy is a Registered Counsellor who is extremely experienced.
She does excellent work with:
– Anxiety
– Depression
– Stress
– Addictions
– Parenting
– Trauma
– PTSD
– Grief and Loss
– Self Confidence
– Self Esteem
– Mental Health (Bipolar, OCD)
– Self harm
– Suicide Ideation
Book your appointment with NANCY, here.
Cheers to more mindfulness, less stress and more happiness,
Penney