Mindfulness.
It is such a powerful practice that we all should be implementing into our daily routines. There are so many benefits to practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness is essential for a healthy mind, body, and spirit. It can also help you effectively regulate your emotions.
Honestly, I could go on and on about how beneficial mindfulness is, the many different ways that it greatly impacts our overall health, and the extensive number of reasons why everyone should be practicing it.
But I won’t do that to you. At least not today!
Instead, I have a very special guest post today from a Celestina Oniye-Thomas, a Psychotherapist at Floating Counselling. She is very knowledgeable in many different areas of psychology and is currently focusing a lot of her attention and coaching services on helping parents maintain their overall well-being. Celestina offers real tools and strategies to empower and educate parents to deal with their past trauma, build resilience and confidence in themselves and their child.
Today, she is going to be sharing with us some of the benefits of practicing mindfulness for our mental health.
Check it out below!
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Mindfulness Techniques to Improve Your Mental Health
Mindfulness is staying in the here now, but this can mean something different to different people. Our perception of the same situation depends on what we have been through in life, what we are going through, and our level of awareness of self. Our environment is also going to determine what mindfulness means to you and how you navigate through these experiences.
Most people think they can be mindful only during meditation, and bringing the mind back when it starts to wonder, by sounds you hear, and even by bodily sensations like breathing. However, as a Psychotherapist for over a decade, I love educating clients that their own version of mindfulness does not have to be what others are doing or saying it should.
You can be mindful all day if you want to be.
Here are three tips that can help you begin practicing mindfulness now, so that you can start the journey of improving your mental health.
First tip: Know your love language
Real mindfulness for me starts with knowing your love language. There are meant to be five love languages according to Gary Chapman. Those five love languages are:
- Words of affirmation
- Physical touch
- Receiving gifts
- Quality time
- Act of service
Why are these love languages important in mindfulness? Knowing your love language can help you better understand what may or may not be stimulating to you as a mindfulness practice. For example, I view meditation as quality time with the self. However, that is not enriching to everyone.
If your love language is word of affirmations, you can incorporate this in your daily activities by engaging in positive affirmations. When doing so, be mindful how you feel, what you see, hear, and smell as you incorporate it. Stop to notice your heart pace and breathing as you tell yourself first thing in the morning that you “are amazing and loved, that greatness is yours that day”.
Notice your breathing and your mood. This taps into self-care too. The words we say to ourselves matters a lot. It can either hinder or builds us. It can be what helps you get up today and tomorrow. It can also be what discourages you to not go for that job, or whatever you may be passionately seeking in life, even though deep down you know you deserve it.
Knowing your own love language also means you do not have to wait for someone outside yourself to complete you, motivate you, or make you happy. Once you know and regularly practice your own love language, and how to tune into your sensations, you will start to really learn to love yourself and make yourself happy.
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Second tip: Be mindful of the food you consume
Another mindfulness activity I often share with my clients is to be mindful of the food they eat. Yes, your food holds a lot of power over how you feel and think. Part of being mindful is taking your time to eat instead of rushing. This is a tactic known as mindful eating.
Take your time and taste the food. Feel yourself chewing and swallowing it. Imagine all the amazing things the food you are consuming is doing to your body. Overall, I encourage you to be present in healthy food intake, by being aware of what you are eating and how it is impacting you.
This type of mindfulness is vital to healthy mental health. Not all mental health problems are caused by trauma or negative life experiences. Sometimes its hormonal imbalance. Healthy eating can help regulate you back to a healthy mind.
Foods like berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, etc.), and nuts (if you are not allergic), especially whole nut and banana, are amazing for the nervous system regulation and production of white blood cell for healing. Both combat illnesses, and help to regulate and build brain functioning, like breathing and heart rate.
They also contain protein that promotes and increases serotonin in the body, which is linked to increasing mood, and often called the happy hormone.
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Third tip: The power of mirror work and smiling
This brings me to the final mindfulness technique, mirror work and smiling. Mirror work ties all three techniques together nicely. Have you ever heard the saying “the eyes are window to the soul”?
Doing your love language in the mirror brings joy to your core, especially if your love language is words of affirmation. As you look at yourself in the mirror, notice your emotions as you either hug yourself (physical touch of the love language), or speak positivity to yourself in the mirror. While doing this, I would also like you to try to smile.
This brings me to the mindfulness practicing of smiling. Smile at yourself in the mirror. As you wake up, or even while doing your daily chores, smile to yourself every time you walk past a mirror or glass.
Smiling is powerful, and can trick your brain into feeling happy. It releases two happy hormones called dopamine (increases feelings of happiness) and serotonin (refer to the second tip). Both are associated with reduced levels of stress, and according to a brain and spine neurologist, it also activates relaxation in the body.
Conclusion
All my mindfulness tips can help combat depression, anxiety, and improve your overall health in many different ways. Please remember that practice makes perfect. The human brain likes what it is used to. At first these mindfulness tips might seem and feel ineffective, but the more you do it and allow your body to release and experience positive hormones, the easier it becomes for the brain to keep you in that mindful and positive state.
What you see, what you hear, what you say, and what you eat all affects your breathing and what you feel. Mindfulness gives the power back to you.
All in All
Like Celestina said, practice makes perfect. Practicing mindfulness is never easy and it can become very tedious at times. However, the more you engage in it and the more you allow yourself to remain committed to it, the more likely you are to perfect that craft.
Mindfulness is not just great for improving your mental health, but also your physical, spiritual, and emotional health. There really is no limit to what mindfulness can do for your overall health. Give these tips a try and consider making mindfulness a regular (and important) part of your daily routine. The results might just surprise you!
Which mindfulness tip will you be trying? Let me know in the comments below!
-Xo
Kimora