Mindfulness means being present without distractions. It allows the mind to rest in its natural state of awareness and experience life as it unfolds, directly, and not lost in thought. It is a way of living without the constant chaos of a busy mind. Sounds nice right?

Imagine being able to put down for good the baggage, stories, judgments, and worries that take up so much space in your mind. When you integrate mindfulness into your life, that becomes possible.

How to Practice Mindfulness Every Day?

Mindfulness simply means being mindful. Being present and aware. It does require some effort to return to that natural state, we are so used to being distracted and multi-tasking all the time. But the effort I am talking about is not taxing on your end, it simply means remembering to notice when you’ve been distracted. You can begin practicing that in your meditation practice, becoming aware of when you drift off into thoughts, catching yourself, and returning to the breath.

In your daily life, you apply the same technique. Whether you are eating, walking, cleaning, taking a shower, opening a door, going for a run, brushing your teeth, whatever it is you simply remember to become present at the moment. You bring awareness to the task or activity before you.

Let’s look at eating a piece of fruit as an example.

Imagine you are eating an apple. It’s not something that would take more than a few minutes, so you will be able to maintain a sense of awareness throughout. Instead of eating an apple and thinking about a million different things, you are going to focus on the act of biting and chewing.

When you bring your mind to focus just on that, you will start to feel a little calmer.
That sense of direct focus is what grounds and calms the mind.
Take your time to really experience what it is like to eat the apple, when was the last time you even were aware of the way you bite and chew? When was the last time you fully tasted an apple as you ate it?

See if you can even train the mind to be aware of the way you swallow and trace the movement or sensation all the way down your throat and into your stomach.

If you notice your mind has wandered and you’ve drifted into thought during this time, that’s fine. Perhaps you got bored or started analyzing the way you chew, maybe it made you think about your teeth and you got totally sidetracked.
None of that matters right now, these observations are still useful, as they teach you about your mind as it really is.

The result? As you begin to apply this mindfulness approach to daily activities, you will find it has a very calming, soothing effect on your mind. It makes you feel very present and it’s incredibly calming.

When you feel calm, you experience greater clarity.

You will start to see how, why you think, and feel the way that you tend to.

The unique patterns, habits, and tendencies of the way your mind works will begin to make sense to you.

And the result of all of this? The ability to gain control and choose how you decide to live your life.
It will make you suddenly acutely aware of how much power you have to direct your thoughts and emotions, responding to how you choose instead of feeling overwhelmed. In short it gives you sovereignty back over your own mind and your life.

Practicing mindfulness can completely turn around your relationships too. Most people think they are being present in the conversations and interactions they have, but the majority of us are thinking about the next thing, wondering about what we are going to say and not truly listening and communicating 100% mindfully.

When you practice mindful listening and mindful talking, you really feel a sense of connection. You are giving someone your full and undivided attention. What an incredible gift.
Mindfulness will help you to feel empowered to live your life on purpose again.

I recommend practicing a combination of both meditation and mindfulness as they compliment each other. When you meditate, you teach your brain that present moment awareness. This is what mindfulness is. That feeling becomes more and more familiar to you and you can start to use it during your day and apply it to other parts of your life much easier. In short, the best place to learn the skill of mindfulness is during meditation practice.

Mindfulness teaches you to shift the way you relate to your own mind. It is a big transformation in the way that you view and respond to your thoughts and feelings. The best way to do it is by repetition. When you practice meditation on a regular basis, you build up a stable sense of present moment focus and you start to make that a natural response in your everyday life.

Do you see how the two go hand in hand? Each practice helps you with the other. It’s also important to try to stick at regular meditation and mindfulness, even when you don’t much feel like it. Like any other skill, your confidence and ability will improve the more often you do it.