Do you ever find that your mind wanders or tends to jump from one thought to another? Or have you found yourself “listening” to someone talking and then your mind wanders to your plans for later that evening? You are not alone! Some studies suggest that a good portion of our daily thoughts are spent in this state of mind wandering. When this happens excessively over long periods of time, it can have a negative impact.
Luckily, there are tools available, such as mindfulness training, to help us to refocus our thoughts. Mindful awareness is being fully aware and tuned in to what is going on right now, in the present moment, and without judgement. There are different ways to practice mindfulness. A formal way is listening to a guided mindfulness meditation or an informal way can be simply paying attention to the temperature of water on your skin as you wash your hands.
You don’t need fancy equipment to practice mindfulness or lot of time to begin practicing! You can practice being mindfully aware and present throughout your day—for example, when you are standing in a line, during a drive or walk, or while talking to a friend or colleague.
Interested in trying a short practice? The three-minute breathing space meditation is a great place to start. In this meditation there are three steps: 1) becoming aware and noticing what your experience is right now, 2) directing attention to the breath and the sensations of the breath, and 3) expanding awareness beyond your breath to also notice sensations of the body.
Join Dr. Brandon Yabko in this three-minute breathing space meditation.
Did you know that you could have mindfulness tools at your fingertips?
Mindfulness Coach is a free and publicly available mobile app for people who are interested in learning about and practicing mindfulness. This app provides users with education about mindfulness, a self-assessment for mindfulness mastery, a training plan and exercises that can help users build a daily mindfulness practice, and opportunities to find support.
Additional mindfulness and breathing exercises, along with other self-care approaches, can also be found in the #LiveWholeHealth Series archives.
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I became distracted has I was reading this.
I have a lot of this going on with me, I’m looking to get in a program to help with my situation that am in.
I suffer from this pretty regularly and maybe because I live alone and have too much time to think. I overthink way too much and trying to stop it is hard. I fight it and sometimes win but most times nope. I’ve tried these mindfulness meditation exercises and they work for awhile but sometimes what’s going on in my head is stronger?. I do try music and sitting outside listening to birds singing or the breeze moving through the trees… sounds of the leaves and branches moving .. little things like that help me refocus a bit. Sun on my face , wind … a mosquito! and then my mind gets sidetracked for a bit and I’m ok. I can’t always go outside because I might be stuck at work but if I can I will if only for a few minutes. It can be a good distraction to help refocus your mind if nothing else is working, I think.