How to form mindful habits?

What’s the difference between someone who tries to meditate and who successfully forms mindful habits? It all comes down to these four easy-to-follow steps.

Understanding the concept of mindfulness

To form mindful habits, you must begin by learning what mindfulness actually is. It’s not just breathwork or meditation—it’s a way of being. Essentially, mindfulness means being aware of and open to your surroundings and experiences in an accepting approach. The key is being receptive; you can live with purpose every day if you can do that.

Staying in the present moment

Living in a world of distractions, we’re constantly pulled away from what’s happening right now. The best way to form mindful habits is to practice meditation (particularly breath work and guided meditation). Meditation has been proven effective for anxiety reduction and stress relief, but it also allows us time to fully focus on what we have—the present moment. When you practice mindfulness of breathing, your attention is placed on where it should be—on your breath.

When you refocus on the breath you remind yourself of your surroundings and the safety of the environment around you, rather than what you did yesterday or the anxiety of having no control over what may happen in the near future. 

Tip: When you find yourself overwhelmed and overtaken by what you do not have control over, scan your surroundings and begin to analyse with your sense. What can you see, smell, taste and touch. Bringing you to being completely present with yourself and getting in touch with your surroundings.

Breath with intention

When practicing mindfulness, it’s important to slow down and fully appreciate what you’re doing. Many times, breathing is done quickly or even unconsciously. Breathwork can be a great way to become mindful of your breathing as you do it with intention—breathing in and out slowly and deeply. This can be done through a variety of methods: You might focus on each breath through regular deep breathing exercises or use breathing as a point of meditation in itself.

Adopting a meditation practice

In practising mindful meditation, I suggested that you begin with breathwork because it prepares your body to be in a meditative state without forcing it. This can be done by sitting quietly and simply taking deep, controlled breaths. In fact, many people describe meditating as breathing with a purpose. It is vital that you keep your breathing slow and deliberate so that you can focus on it instead of getting lost in thought (which also happens frequently). With practice, you can use breathwork as a technique for mindfulness and stress reduction throughout your day.

Tip: create a routine of doing it first thing in the morning followed by a cold shower to increase blood flow throughout the body and increase energy levels throughout the day. various forms of breathwork and meditative practices can be found all over youtube (search for breath work or energy work etc) as well as various forms within different religions/faiths (prayer, Hinduism, Buddhism etc)

The importance of developing mindfulness into a daily routine cannot be understated. For those people who are still new to it, I’d recommend starting with something like breath work or body scans. Breathing is a necessity, so you can use it as a grounding point when beginning your practice. It’s also not too difficult, or time-consuming.

Author: Founder Alycia Davies