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The days fly by. Work, home, children, shopping … make the clock tick and you arrive at the end of the day exhausted and with the feeling that you have barely been able to enjoy the day. Perhaps the time has come to stop a bit, relax, take a deep breath … If you continue like this, you are going to miss a lot of things or you are going to end up suffering the consequences of stress and anxiety. Why don’t you start doing some mindfulness exercises? It will not take you more than a few minutes a day and its benefits are incalculable.
What is mindfulness
Ksenia Ryzhkova (@ibicenia), psychologist and instructor of Mindfulness and self-compassion of WOmum Madrid, defines this discipline as “Mindfulness to the present moment without judgment and with kindness. Other definitions that we can use are mindfulness, mind training and being in what we are ”.
Definitely, it’s about training the mind to savor every moment. “Mindfulness provides us with a set of tools to be able to learn to re-educate our mind to a conscious behavior focused on the present. Using them we can get out of the autopilot and land in the present moment. It makes us aware of our thoughts and feelings, but without being trapped by them (emotional regulation). It makes us see the world more clearly so that we can make wiser decisions, responding in a conscious way instead of reacting automatically. Wakes us to life”, Explains this expert trained at the University of Massachusetts and the Complutense.
Benefits of mindfulness
The Harvard University He has been studying the benefits of the habitual practice of the here and now since the 70s.
- Calm the mind. It is very effective in some treatments, such as stress, anxiety, depression.
- Prevents ailments. Meditation reduces the inflammation that is at the origin of different diseases.
- Take care of the brain. Practicing it for one hour a day for 8 weeks can improve memory, learning, and emotional intelligence.
- Build empathy. Mindfulness makes us more compassionate.
However, “For the practice to give us benefits, it takes patience and repetition. It is not a pill that works immediately. It is a profound transformation of our mind, our habits and our way of being. It is a change towards a fuller and happier life, ”warns mindfulness instructor Ksenia Ryzhkova.
How to practice mindfulness at home
Although the ideal is to practice mindfulness in the hands of an accredited expert who will teach you how to do it, there are certain guidelines that can help us immerse ourselves in this discipline. The psychologist sure that “it is not difficult, the difficult thing is to remember to do it.” In addition, it offers some guidelines for you to put into practice at home and in any other space that you frequent in your day to day.
- Try bringing mindfulness to some routine activity (scrub, shower, brush your teeth, etc.). Focus fully on what you are doing without comments, without concepts, without judgments…. Whenever your mind wanders, bring it back with patience and kindness.
- Pause and ask yourself: “How am I right now?” Be aware of your thoughts and feelings, learning to observe them with curious and calm attention, without being trapped by them.
- Practice the mindful eating (conscious eating). Choose some food (a piece of fruit, for example) and observe it awakening your five senses. Focus on its colors, notice its texture, perceive its aromas, and finally appreciate its taste in your mouth and the crunch in your ear. Take your time, don’t be in a hurry.
- Practice attentive listening, focusing fully on what another person wants to convey to you, setting aside your judgments and comments for a moment.
- At least once a week take a mindful walk, walking through nature fully present in each step, feeling the contact of your feet with the earth, the air breeze on your skin, the sound of the birds, the aroma of the countryside … Feel that you are fully there, feeling that you are alive .
Mindfulness exercises on video
This selection of videos can help you familiarize yourself with mindfulness. Put on comfortable clothes, settle in, and get ready to enjoy the present moment.
This channel has a lot of mindfulness practices and guided meditations so you can regain your calm if you need it and learn to live in the present moment with mindfulness.
Do you find it difficult to fall asleep when you lie in bed? This guided session is perfect for a good night’s sleep. It will help you release tension, eliminate stress and anxiety and release the nerves accumulated during the day. You will sleep like a baby.
The practice of soap bubbles is great for learning to let go of negative thoughts. The Petit Bambou app is one of our favorites for practicing mindfulness. It has audios for all kinds of levels and needs.
In this guided mindfulness meditation you can learn to be fully present in the moment, letting go of thoughts, especially negative ones.
If you have never had contact with mindfulness, this video can help you. Is about an easy meditation session for beginners. You will see how you get a taste for it!
Ismael Santos offers a 15 minute guided practice in which you will learn to focus attention on the breath. It is about observing how air enters and leaves the body. In this way, it is possible to train the mind to be more stable and less reactive.
This video is created for get that feeling of relaxation associated with feelings of peace, energy, self-acceptance and improvement of happiness. Practice it and you will reduce symptoms related to stress and anxiety.
In this channel you will find a lot of delicious sessions to learn to focus on what you are doing. This 15 minute video will help you enjoy every moment.
Gustavo Diex from Nirakara guides you in this Mindfulness practice that it will help you focus on your thoughts. You will discover that it is not easy to observe the thought, but this professional will help you to do it and to accept what comes to your head.
This practice is aimed at relieving anxiety and stress. It will teach you to live with these unpleasant sensations without judgment, with openness, compassion and being in the present moment. You will notice how little by little you will get to feel better. .
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