What is Mindfulness and how can it improve your daily life?

As we go through our the day, we deposit little energy balls. One is left at home from your daily morning routine. If you drop the kids off at school, that's another energy ball. You sit in traffic, that's another energy ball. Being at work is another energy ball, or more likely several. By lunch time, you are likely feeling like you need another coffee or some sort of energy drink to get back all the energy that you have expended thus far through out the day.

Alright, so what do little energy balls have anything to do with being mindful? Well, to me, being mindful is taking a break to notice your low energy and take action. When you are mindful, you can say, "Hey. I'm feeling stressed already and I still have a lot of day left. I'm going to take this time and let go of all the stress from earlier today. I'm not going to let it weigh on my brain anymore. I release the stress form this morning." And in doing so, all those energy balls that you deposited throughout your morning come flying back into your bucket and fill it back up, therefore refilling your energy.

Another way of saying it is that Mindfulness is checking in with yourself to see how you are feeling and if you need to do something about it. Are you feeling stressed, hungry or sleepy? If you are feeling stressed, you can take a few deep breathes and release your morning stress by practicing mindfulness. If you're hungry you can take this time to eat. If you are sleepy, hopefully you can take a nap or at least get a coffee.

The best part about practicing mindfulness is that you can do it whenever you need to. You can do it every time you step away from your computer, or when you drink a glass of water. When you put your car into park and turn your car off, you can take a quick moment then as well. You can decide the best time to do it for yourself.

You will start to notice the benefits immediately. For me personally, when I practice mindfulness, I have a longer fuse before feeling stressed or even angry. Other people have said that doing it before bed helps them sleep at night. I notice an immediate calmness after practicing mindfulness. I would recommend it to everyone as it can be modified to your needs. It can be short or long or done at anytime or even several times through out the day. I highly recommend it. So go on, give it a try and start feeling more energized, less stressed and more happy.

Thank you for reading and may you find peace and warmth in your near future.

Amber Anderson