A Beginner’s Guide to Mindfulness

I’m on a mission to make mindfulness as easy as possible because I believe it’s one of the best ways to find balance and avoid burnout. Modern life is busy. Stress and overwhelm are rife. People often find themselves feeling anxious and worrying about the future. Others are busy ruminating about the past. We do these things as we race from one task to the next, operating on autopilot while our health and wellbeing suffer.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. We can learn to focus on the present moment, create calm and find balance.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is ‘awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally’. In other words, rather than getting caught up in your own head, mindfulness is about living in the here and now.

Mindfulness can be as simple as noticing what we don’t normally notice because we’re usually too busy worrying about what we need to do or overthinking things we’ve already done. Being mindful helps us train our attention and prevent our minds from wandering. This is important because a wandering mind is often consumed by stressful thoughts without us even realising.

The Benefits of Mindfulness

I’ve witnessed the magical effects of mindfulness first-hand with hundreds of clients. More than anything, it’s the perfect antidote to burnout. If you’re juggling a million things and feeling constantly stressed and overwhelmed, mindfulness could be a lifeline, helping you create some calm amid the chaos.

Mindfulness can also help you:

• Increase self-awareness
• Improve memory
• Relieve anxiety
• Lift and prevent low mood
• Reduce stress
• Boost focus and attention
• Improve relationships
• Manage pain and chronic illness
• Improve sleep
• Boost creativity

How to Start a Mindfulness Practice

Often, when people think about mindfulness, they confuse it with meditation, a skill that can feel complicated and time-consuming. But I’m going to let you in on a secret – you can practice mindfulness in under 10 minutes a day and you don’t have to meditate at all! Try this…

Pick a routine activity from your daily life such as making your bed, brushing your teeth, showering, drinking a cup of tea, or putting on make-up. Make a deliberate effort to bring moment-to-moment awareness to that activity as you do it. Really tune into what you’re doing as you’re doing it. Notice any body sensations, feelings and thoughts as they arise. If your mind wanders off and you get distracted, congratulate yourself for even noticing this has happened in the first place before gently bringing your attention back to your chosen activity.

Mindful Moments

With a bit of practice, you can create mindful moments just like this throughout your day. I share six other easy exercises in my free guide to mindfulness. Grab your copy now. You can also learn more about my eight-week Mindfulness for Modern Life Course and join the waiting list here.