Everyday mindfulness you can do anywhere, at any time.
Congratulations, you’re on the home straight of our Headstrong challenge. By now, we hope you’re putting your new mindfulness skills to good practice and are feeling some positive benefits.
For this final week, we’ll be concentrating on practising everyday mindfulness. You can it anywhere. As long as you do it with intention, and really focus on being in the moment and noticing the world around you, you can tune in to the experience of even the most mundane tasks and begin to appreciate what you’re experiencing while you experience it. For this, we’ll be using walking as an example.
Our Health and Wellbeing Programme Manager, Alex Read, offers these tips:
Find a time and place
- From a relaxing stroll in the countryside to the walk to work, you can choose any setting to practise this.
Focus on your breathing
- As before, take some breaths and start to relax. Begin to breathe mindfully, using our mindful breathing guide. (You may find it easier to pause walking while you focus on your breathing. Begin to walk again once you are breathing mindfully.)
Focus on your body
- Take a moment to think about how your body feels. Do you have any tensions or sensations? How does the ground feel against your feet? Our body scan guide may help you focus.
Everyday mindfulness – walking
Now begin to notice the movements of your body that are normally instinctual. Pay attention to the sights and sounds around you. Notice how you move into different spaces.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our 4 week Headstrong challenge!