Mindfulness Meditation

"The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it." — Thich Nhat Hanh

As mentioned in the Introduction page, mindfulness itself is a way of life - aiming to live within the present, noticing things as they are, without judgement.

Mindfulness meditations are short practices which aim to teach you the skill of mindfulness and train your mind so that with time, you will notice you can live life more mindfully.

To illustrate this point, imagine you go to the gym and you often do bicep curls to train your arms. With time, you'll find you have bigger muscles and can lift heavier objects more easily than before, like shopping bags or your children! This is the same for mindfulness meditations: with practice of short, dedicated meditations, you are training your mind to be able to use those mindful skills more easily in daily life.

There are a huge variety of mindfulness meditation techniques, many of which are easy to fit into your daily routine.

In this technique, we slowly scan through different parts of the body to bring our awareness to those areas. Notice any feelings or sensations there, without judging or trying to change anything, before moving on.

Spend some time noticing your toes and feet, and any feelings of contact with the surface beneath you

Moving on to the ankles, then the calves and shins

Bringing attention to the knees

Noticing any sensations that are there, not trying to make any changes...

(Continue up to the top of the head)

Note moving from head to toe is often used in relaxation exercises, eg to aid falling asleep. In this technique we want to remain awake and aware, so we are moving from the toes to the head.

Mindful body scan

Mindful walking

This really is as simple as it sounds! Go out for a walk, or even spend time walking around your home or workplace. Use all your senses to really notice and maintain awareness of your surroundings - what you can see, hear, touch, smell, taste. You can try labelling these things in your mind as you notice them.

"There's a tall tree to the left with a few leaves starting to grow. A bird is flying around the top of it; I can hear it chirping. The sun shines through the branches and is making pretty shadows on the path in front of me. My boots are making a crunching sound as I walk along this track, and my hands feel warm inside my pockets. There are small puddles from the rain shower this morning, and I can smell the damp earth around me..."

Mindful eating

How often do you try to do other things while eating a meal? Watching TV, working, scrolling social media... before you know it, your meal has finished and you didn't even notice! Mindful eating aims to encourage awareness of all the sensations that come with eating - the appearance of the food, the smell, the taste, the texture, the sound it makes when being cut or being eaten. Learning to eat mindfully is especially important in those who struggle with their relationship with food as this can help to remove the emotion from eating.

Pick up a snack food of your choice. How does it feel in your hand? Is it heavy? Hold it for a while and look at it closely, noticing its colours and patterns, any textures you can feel. Does it leave anything on your fingers? Put it to your nose and notice how it smells. Does it remind you of anything? Take a bite and think about how it feels in your mouth, is it soft? Juicy? Do you need to chew it? Notice how your teeth and tongue work to break down the food before you can swallow it. How did it taste?

Mindful Breathing

You'll notice this overlaps with a breathing meditation.

In this technique, spend time being curious about your breath, noticing where you feel its movement, what its pattern is, without trying to change it in any way.

Notice where you feel the breath entering your body. Perhaps you feel cool air at the nostrils, or air brushing over your lips.

Follow the path of the breath as it moves from your nose or mouth, down the throat, to the chest and abdomen, then notice its movement back out again.

Are the breaths deep or shallow? Long or short?

You can try placing a hand over your chest or abdomen to feel the movement your breath creates in your body.

Brushing your teeth mindfully

This might seem incredibly dull, but trying to brush your teeth mindfully is an excellent way to build mindfulness into your daily routine since it is something you do every day anyway, and only takes a couple of minutes. Bring awareness to brushing your teeth with all your senses, noticing what you can see - many people are looking in a mirror at the sink, what you can hear, feel, taste and smell.

Pick up your toothbrush and notice how it feels in your hand. Squeeze the toothpaste onto the brush, noticing how much pressure you needed to apply to the tube. When you start brushing, consider how this feels in your mouth - the touch of the toothbrush against your teeth, gums and tongue. Any sounds that are produced, from the brushing or perhaps from the toothbrush if you have an electric toothbrush. Can you taste the toothpaste? Notice how everything runs down the plughole when you spit, and how your mouth feels afterwards.

Any daily activity can be used!

As you can see from several of these examples, any activity you do day-to-day can be turned into an opportunity to practice mindfulness. Other examples include getting dressed, washing your hair, driving your car, hanging the laundry...

Mindfulness meditations can have many benefits. Since the aim is to be fully within the present moment, being mindful leaves no space for worrying about the future or ruminating over past events, as those are not in the present, so learning mindfulness helps to reduce these thinking patterns.

Mindfulness of specific behaviours can be really helpful in certain medical conditions too. As eluded to above, mindful eating is a technique which can help those who have a strong emotional connection with food, leading to binge eating as a coping mechanism for their feelings. Mindful body scans can be a way for those suffering with chronic pain conditions or who have experienced a traumatic injury of a specific body part, to re-connect with their body or that part of their body, rather than viewing it as something that has let them down or failed in some way.

Try some guided mindfulness meditations

Although the concept is very simple, being mindful when doing daily tasks can be really difficult. You may find your mind is often wandering and worries creep back in. This is normal, so don't be disheartened! Being mindful also includes noticing when your mind has wandered and gently bringing it back to the present moment without judging yourself for it. With practice, you will notice the mind wanders less often and you are able to bring it back to the present more easily.

It is important to note that some mindfulness activities may not be suitable for you to undertake alone for the first time as they may be triggering. These may include, but are not limited to, those suffering with eating disorders, PTSD, complex pain conditions and sexual or birth trauma. Please contact a healthcare professional for advice and guidance on practising mindfulness in the safest way for you.