Daily Mindfulness Tasks

Are you living a conscious life? Do you even understand what’s involved? Mindfulness is a large trend lately, but it’s a lot more than just a breathing exercise and a few minutes sitting with your legs crossed. It’s a level of awareness which accompanies you throughout your daily, and all of your activities.

Firstly, what does an unconscious lifestyle look like? This excerpt from ‘The Healing Self’ by Deepak Chopra and Rudolph E. Tanzi is a great place to start. If you relate with any of these statements, then maybe working on your conscious self is a great place to start.

What an Unconscious Day is Like: from ‘The Healing Self’ by Deepak Chopra and Rudolph E. Tanzi

• You eat irregularly or on the run
• You consume packaged or fast food
• You feel bad about your body or your weight, just as you did the day before and will the day after
• You act rushed or pressured
• You listen to your spouse and kids without actually listening
• You react negatively toward someone without examining why this is necessary or right
• You don’t notice anything beautiful for the entire day
• You worry about a nagging problem with no plan to solve it
• You habitually take a dim view of the future
• You are haunted by something painful in your past
• You feel stuck and unfulfilled
• You feel insecure or unsafe
• You are lonely
• You lash out at a friend without thinking
• You play the victim
• You fail to stand up for yourself
• You behave like a people pleaser - you go along to get along.

Whether you recognise these qualities in yourself or in others, this list is a little confronting. However, understand that our modern lifestyle driven by distraction and so-called ‘multi-tasking’ is a large factor. How we control our devices, our time and our consciousness are totally up to us. Although everything in our lives these days seems to encourage us to run off instant gratification, we don’t HAVE to live like that.

Here are some simple tasks you can do to take control:

• schedule time on your phone to answer emails, phone messages, and texts. Give yourself this time once or twice a day depending on your workload.
• if you receive emails, texts or calls throughout the day that aren’t urgent, don’t let them interrupt your current task! If you’re having dinner or are meeting up with someone, put your damn phone away and be present with the person or experience in front of you!
• turn off notifications and utilise the ‘do not disturb’ function on your phone while driving and at night time.
• schedule device-free time: for example, no devices before 8 am or after 8 pm
• create non-negotiable routines which help offset unpredictable events, ensure that you stay present throughout these routines as it enables you to remain focused
• give yourself time to be alone and quiet during the day
• don’t enable these scheduled moments to be interrupted, whether they’re alone time or scheduled events with other people.
• While our devices are great at keeping us in the loop, they also give us the ability to put them away and come back to things later. A general rule of thumb is, if it’s not urgent, then wait until your scheduled time of the day to check it!
• mindfulness is a lovely way to bring self-care into the form of daily habits and routines. Recently, I’ve introduced a 2-minute meditation habit prior to falling asleep and straight after waking and I’ve found it’s had a significant impact on my sleep quality. I’ve loved using an app called ‘Insight Timer’ which has an amazing range of meditation playlists for every need - and it’s free too!
• even morning when I wake, I like to keep the lights low and sit in bed with a candle lit and plan my day. This is a great way to unload my brain so that I know everything I need to get done and I don’t have to worry that things will pop up throughout the day.
• if you’re feeling stressed or over-whelmed throughout the day, bring your awareness back into focus by taking control of your breath. Practice some diaphragmatic (or belly) breathing, or use the ‘box breathing’ method. Inhale for 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4 and finally hold for another count of 4. Then, identify how to approach what ever is bothering or overwhelming you, make yourself a step-by-step list of where to from here.
• I also love giving myself time for a mid-day/afternoon walk which gets me out of the house and moving. Honestly, if I could I’d sit down and work all day! But I need to consciously remind myself to stay active throughout the day. Especially now that it’s cooler, it’s lovely making the most of the sunshine when it comes out to play. So grab the dog and surprise them with a mid-day stroll - even if it’s just ten minutes. Use this time to review what you’ve accomplished and really ground yourself before heading home or back into work to tackle the rest of your to-do list.

These tasks are just some easy ideas to incorporate into your day to fight the modern lifestyle! Encourage consciousness in yourself and remind others to be conscious in their actions too! Ask for a phone-free dinner with the kids, or perhaps schedule some time to sit and chat with your partner while your phones are in the other room, most importantly become aware of yourself in every situation and try to gain a ‘bigger picture’ understanding. This means putting everything into perspective, appreciating the experience which you are currently in and ensuring that you’re making the most of every moment.

From our home to yours,