Mindfulness is a special form of conscious perception. You live completely in the here and now and experience yourself and your environment in a state of absolute alertness. Concentrating on the present decelerates everyday life and gives you more quality of life.
The definition of mindfulness is explained by the meaning of the term alone. A mindful person perceives his environment particularly intensively. He is not easily distracted and remains concentrated on the matter at hand. He is deeply anchored in reality. However, mindfulness cannot be equated with attention, as one would expect from a child at school.
Mindfulness is more than just conscious awareness. You use all your senses and free yourself from judgmental thinking. This means that you are in a state in which there is neither good nor evil, nothing ugly or beautiful. You allow the present to have a neutral effect on you and thereby experience Satisfaction and relaxation. You develop a Self-confidencewhich is to be understood literally.
Like meditation, mindfulness practices are rooted in Buddhism. In fact, these two methods are similar. The goal is to reach a state of consciousness where you are aware and accepting of the present. The Meditation includes various concentration techniques in which you direct your awareness to your breath, a mantra, or a specific object. In mindfulness, you focus on the present moment.
As already mentioned, mindfulness gives you more zest for life and self-confidence. It helps against general distraction and counteracts everyday stress. You keep calm in hectic situations, live more consciously and more contentedly. You learn to protect yourself from influences and to rely on your own intuition to leave. That makes you strong.
Mindfulness is also important for your self-compassion. It teaches you to love and accept yourself as you are. If you focus only on the moment, you learn to understand your feelings and thoughts better. You free yourself from external influences that manipulate you and distort your view of yourself. Mindfulness thus also serves to find the truth.
Scientists from the University of Giessen also found that mindfulness helps you have a healthier and more stable psyche. It is even capable of strengthening the immune system and helping you to have personal and professional health. Strokes of fate better. You learn to be more patient and develop more sensitivity. In general, you react more calmly and are less affected by negative influences.
The Max Planck Institute also has good news to report. Using a hair analysis, the researchers found that mindfulness reduces stress levels by 25 percent. The prerequisite for this is daily practice. The success is already apparent after about two months.
Mindfulness sharpens your senses and sensitizes you to the signals of your body, your soul and your environment. To provide you with professional guidance, there is mindfulness coaching. The coaching supports the treatment of personality disorders and depression. You get an optimistic attitude and worry less about unnecessary things. Many people who participate in mindfulness training report that they fall asleep better and sleep through the night with less ponder.
You live only for the moment, perceive yourself and everything around you with all your senses and think of nothing else. That sounds very easy at first. However, you will probably find out very quickly that your thoughts are still too much occupied with the Past or thinking about future events. Very few people succeed in switching off immediately and keeping their head clear. That's why it's worth taking part in a mindfulness coaching session.
With mindfulness coaching, you receive professional support. You will learn how to detach yourself from manipulative influences and focus only on what is essential. You will also learn interesting exercises that will help you to experience more mindfulness.
In the 1970s, the American molecular biologist and physician Jon Kabat-Zinn developed mindfulness-based stress reduction, or MBSR called. His eight-week Coaching reduces anxiety, relieves pain and helps with depression. His method is based on scientific findings, which he combined with Far Eastern practices from Zen, yoga and Buddhism. The MBSR program is considered scientifically recognized.
Mindfulness is easy to integrate into everyday life. With the following exercises you can bring positive changes into your life in a simple way.
Allow yourself a few minutes every now and then in which you think of nothing but yourself and your surroundings. You are welcome to use this as a Habit and take regular breaks at certain times. Then you won't be tempted to put off your mindfulness training. For example, you can take a 15-minute break in the morning, at lunch, and in the evening. Time out one. This is similar to Muslims praying five times a day or Buddhist monks, but not quite as strict.
Make it a habit to simply be mindful for a few minutes in the morning after getting up and do nothing else. Lie down on your back and let the impressions around you calmly take effect on you. Maybe the birds are chirping, a fly is buzzing, or you spot a dark blob on the ceiling. Concentrate on the smell of your bedclothes, the fluffy feeling on your skin and the rhythm of your breath.
A wonderful hobby to train mindfulness is photography. Go in search of motifs, for example in the garden, park, forest or at an idyllic lake. Observe the world around you and look out for interesting subjects. It can be an insect on a plant, a particularly beautiful tree or a weather impression. Capture the most beautiful moments as a snapshot.
In many regions there are barefoot paths with changing ground conditions. For example, you walk over stones, soft moss, wood and sand. Since we usually walk through the world with shoes on, we don't feel enough with the sole of our foot. Therefore, take off your shoes and socks and focus only on the temperature and surface texture of the ground. You can also walk barefoot across a meadow or in the forest.
The relaxing The effect of forest bathing has been proven by Japanese scientists. According to a study by the Tokyo Nippon Medical School, forest bathing increases the Concentration of DHEA in the blood. This is a hormone that positively influences cardiovascular function.
The forest is an excellent place for mindfulness training. Far away from the hustle and bustle of the city, many people find it easy to switch off. At the same time, a visit to the forest stimulates the senses. Birds chirp, deer rustle in the undergrowth, the sun shimmers through the tall trees swaying gently in the wind. When you embark on an adventure, you gain valuable experience.
Avoid thinking about, planning, and organizing past or future things while eating. Eating is a time of leisure. Use it to take in the aroma of the food, to taste, smell and see the meal. Listen to the sound of the drink flowing into the glass and focus on your slow chewing.
If you have to wait at the train station or bus stop, it's best to use the time to take in as many impressions as possible. Sit on a bench and observe the hustle and bustle from a complacent distance. What do you notice?
Almost all the men and women go through life with tunnel vision. They only pay attention to their watch and are driven by the worry that they won't miss their train or bus. They do not consciously perceive the events around them, but are mostly somewhere else in their thoughts. You do it better. You are in the here and now and your senses catch the most diverse stimuli.
Take different body positions and pay attention to your breathing, the tension in muscles and ligaments and how you feel. For example, you can kneel for a few minutes, then sit, lie down, cross your legs or squat. Do you feel the changes?
A proven way to anchor mindfulness in everyday life is to write in a journal every day. This practice helps to organize thoughts, reflect on emotions and focus on the positive. Particularly popular is the 6-minute diarywhich uses simple, structured questions to focus on gratitude, goals and self-reflection - an ideal introduction for anyone who wants to achieve maximum impact with minimum effort. The Greator Journal offers inspiring impulses and space for personal development. Both journals are valuable companions on the path to greater inner clarity and sustainable mindfulness.
What is mindfulness? If you have read this text carefully, you know what to do. In a nutshell: Live for the moment and make the most of it! Meditate by the way, is also a wonderful tool to give you more mindfulness.
