What Mindfulness Is?

Last Updated on August 22, 2023 by Tracey McGrath

Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to your present moment.  It is about noticing, without judgment, what is happening right now.  You can practice mindfulness in lots of different ways.  This article will define what mindfulness is and give you ways to practice mindfulness.  

What Mindfulness Is?

Oxford Languages defines mindfulness as “a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.”  

Stated simply it is the practice of paying attention without judgment.  Being present with whatever task is at hand. And most importantly doing so without judging. 

The simplest form of mindfulness is to notice your surroundings.  Right now you can practice mindfulness by noticing what you’re wearing.  Simply ask yourself how it feels on your skin, smooth, rough, warm, silky, tight?  Does your skin feel cool or warm?  How do you feel this sensation?  It is because you feel a cool breeze?  Or warm air?  Or it is coming from somewhere inside of you?  Do you feel sweat trickling down your face or goosebumps on your arms?  

This is a wonderful start to a mindfulness practice!    Grab a FREE mindfulness journal template to easily start your daily practice!

Why Mindfulness Is So Important Now?

Humans are inundated with distractions via TV, advertisements, social media, dings, pings, and tweets.   All of these distractions may be hindering our productivity and well-being.¹ Our brains are capable of adapting to distractions. The brain may in fact be designed for distractions.²  However, there’s still a need for focused attention at times. We need to learn new material and perform our work.  And that same focus can help us to feel calm and present.    

If you get distracted, it takes approximately 23 minutes to get your focus back.³ Let’s say you get 3 text messages unrelated to your work in one hour.  You have almost spent the entire hour working to get your focus back!  

With all of these digital distractions, you may feel scattered and stressed.  You are still completing the same amount of work. And maybe even in less time.  A UC Irvine study reports that workers who are interrupted may adapt and get work done faster.  But they also report higher stress, frustration, workload and pressure.⁴  

Benefits to Mindfulness

The benefits of mindfulness are seemingly endless. Mindfulness practices can: 

• Reduce anxiety
• Reduce depression
• Reduce distraction
• Improve memory and focus
• Improve body satisfaction⁵
• Improve well-being
• Help relieve stress
• Lower blood pressure
• Reduce chronic pain
• Improve sleep¹⁵

I started my mindfulness meditation practice to help with my anxiety.  And to help me feel more present and increase my joy.  As I noticed what was happening right in front of me I could better experience and enjoy the moment itself. 

Mindfulness versus Meditation

All meditation could be considered mindfulness.  However, mindfulness is a practice that you can incorporate into your daily life anytime, anywhere.  Meditation is an intentional practice.  You choose a specific place and length of time to sit in silence.  But mindfulness is different.  Deepak Chopra explains it best, “mindfulness can be applied to any situation throughout the day.”⁶

Mindfulness is also a specific type of meditation.   You focus your attention on the present moment without judgment.⁷   Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction created by John Kabat Zinn is this type of practice.  Many institutions provide training for this type of specific practice.  It improves self-esteem, increases your ability to relax, and provides greater energy.  It also reduces pain perception and provides a better ability to deal with stress.  Kabat Zinn reiterates that mindfulness is something that all humans already have within them.  And one only needs the practice to observe and utilize this “deep internal resource”.⁸

Practicing mindfulness helps to regain focus.  It trains your brain to focus on what’s happening in the here and now.⁹  Over time you will start to be more mindful of things.  This will happen even when you’re not intentionally practicing mindfulness.   

Ways to Practice Mindfulness

1. Meditation

Mindfulness-based meditation is perhaps the most commonly cited form of mindfulness.  There are many studies on the effects of practicing meditation.  Meditation helps to improve focus, memory, and a general sense of well-being.  It can also decrease symptoms of anxiety and depression.¹⁰ 

A daily practice of any form of meditation is practicing mindfulness.  Meditation often involves watching your breath or repeating a mantra.  In those types of meditation, you are mindfully noticing your breath or a phrase.  You continue to practice mindfulness by bringing your attention back to your breath over and over again.  Check out my article, Benefits of Meditation, for more info on how to start your practice!  And grab a FREE guided meditation from me too!

Or join a FREE class from zivaONLINE Meditation. In this free Masterclass “3 Secrets to Reduce Stress, Overcome Anxiety, and Improve Sleep in 15 Days (or Less)” you will learn essential tools to show up as the best version of yourself – starting today!

2. Being in Nature

Humans are meant to be in nature and modern-day living often keeps us indoors all day.  Reconnecting with nature reduces anger, fear, and stress.¹¹ 

In nature, you can practice engaging your senses in lovely scents, colors, and sounds.  Use all 5 of your senses on a walk to practice mindfulness.  What do you see?  What do you hear?  What can you taste?  What do you smell?  What can you touch and what does it feel like?  

3. Mindful Eating

This is a fun practice that only takes a few minutes!  Grab a raisin or a nut.  Use something relatively small and only a single piece.  Examine the item in your hand.  What can you see?  What does it feel like?  Slowly bring the item to your mouth.  Are you already starting to salivate?  How does it feel when it hits your tongue?  How does your tongue move it around your mouth?  Do you feel it getting stuck on your teeth?  How do you remove it?  What does it taste like?  Sweet, salty, squishy, hard?  How do you move it to the back of your throat?  How does it feel going down your throat?  Now notice how your mouth feels?

Notice how much enjoyment you can receive from a single piece of food.  Remember this exercise next time you eat a meal and try to engage all of your senses.  

4. Trying a New Skill

This is one of my favorite ways to practice mindfulness.  I love taking classes!  I spent years while I was living in LA taking all types of classes. From glass blowing to bread making to surfing.  By trying a new skill, you engage new pathways in your brain.¹² 

Your brain wants to make things easier for you.  By creating habits (good or bad) your brain frees up much-needed energy to learn new tasks.¹³  

Your brain loves when it doesn’t have to think about a task anymore.  Think about walking for a second.  If you break down every tiny movement that goes into taking one step it’s an amazing feat of strength and balance.  But do you ever think about how to walk anymore?  Probably not since you were around 2 years old.  So, your brain has this task figured out.  It’s not exactly lighting up parts of your brain that help with cognition and focus.

Learning a new skill can help to actually improve memory and focus.  Because you don’t know how to do the skill you must intentionally focus.  You are more engaged because you’re choosing a skill that you want to learn.  This helps your brain to be mindful of the task.  You have to focus because your brain doesn’t have a learned habit to fall back on yet.  For example, baking bread for the first time makes you focus on the recipe and how to knead the bread.     

Check out Craftsy for tons of online courses and try learning a new skill today! They have everything from drawing classes to baking bread to knitting and woodworking classes!

5. Mindful Art

Art is another great way to practice mindfulness.  You can use mindful art to be engaged as you create and notice what thoughts arise.  The colors, textures, and lines all activate your brain and engage your senses.  Check out my article on Therapeutic Art for more information and ways you can practice today!  Or grab a FREE Mindful Art activity for a fun and creative mindfulness practice!

There’s also a wonderful art subscription box, Master Peace Box. It comes with everything you need to use your creativity mindfully! You get all the art supplies needed and access to demonstration videos. There’s even an option for those of you with art supplies on hand for a lower price.

6. Yoga

Another excellent way to practice mindfulness is with mindful stretching or yoga.  Yoga has long been one of my favorite ways to strengthen my body and create more flexibility.  I highly recommend incorporating yoga into your daily routine.  It helps you manage stress, strengthens your body, and relaxes you.  It also helps with back pain and arthritis.¹⁴ 

It’s wonderful to sense how such small changes in your posture can make you so aware of your body.  I highly recommend Strala Yoga.  Tara Stiles, the creator and owner, promotes yoga that is gentle and healing.  Yogaworks is another favorite yoga resource of mine. They have a great online membership option with tons of videos.

Make sure you have a comfortable yoga mat and yoga blocks. Other accessories like straps and bolsters can also be great for releasing tight muscles. And a yoga blanket is great for providing support to your knees in certain postures or just for getting nice and cozy during your rest time.

Work With Me

If you want to find ways to be more mindful, check out my digital course, Becoming Blissful. It offers self-paced modules on different ways you can learn to be more mindful and reduce stress. You’ll learn how to easily meditate, how to use a journaling practice to dive deeper into your intuition, and mindful art projects to reconnect to your creativity. For more information check it out here!

References:

1. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/oct/14/the-lost-art-of-concentration-being-distracted-in-a-digital-world
2. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/brain-distraction-procrastination-science#:~:text=During%20those%20periods%20of%20distraction,to%20what%20you%20were%20doing
3. https://www.fastcompany.com/944128/worker-interrupted-cost-task-switching
4. https://www.ics.uci.edu/~gmark/chi08-mark.pdf
5. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeenacho/2016/07/14/10-scientifically-proven-benefits-of-mindfulness-and-meditation/?sh=73b711f963ce
6. https://chopra.com/articles/explaining-the-difference-between-mindfulness-meditation
7. https://www.nytimes.com/guides/well/how-to-meditate#:~:text=Mindfulness%20meditation%20is%20the%20practice%20of%20actually%20being%20present%20in,present%20moment%20without%20any%20judgment.
8. https://mbsrtraining.com/
9. https://wellness.huhs.harvard.edu/mindfulness
10. https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/meditation/in-depth/meditation/art-20045858
11. https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/how-does-nature-impact-our-wellbeing#:~:text=Being%20in%20nature%2C%20or%20even,the%20production%20of%20stress%20hormones.
12. https://www.inc.com/brian-wong/how-learning-a-new-skill-helps-your-mind-grow-stronger.html#:~:text=Additionally%2C%20learning%20new%20skills%20stimulates,help%20you%20stave%20off%20dementia.
13. https://news.mit.edu/2012/understanding-how-brains-control-our-habits-1029
14. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/9-benefits-of-yoga
15. https://www.helpguide.org/harvard/benefits-of-mindfulness.htm

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