What if I told you there was a pill out there that has been proven to reduce pain, eliminate anxiety and help you enjoy the moment. It can increase your life span. It has been heralded as a way to connect deeper with yourself and others. It has been used by the U.S. Marines, Goldie Hawn and professors at Cambridge and Oxford. The best part, it’s legal, it’s free and there are no negative side effects.
Without even realizing it, most of us get caught up in the busyness of our lives. In fact, we are on autopilot most of the time, going from task to task and activity to activity. We are living a full life of busy activities, but are we living fully?
Are you stuck in the busyness trap? Here are some questions you can ask yourself to see if it’s time to reevaluate your hectic life:
- Are you focused on checking off goals and tasks, rushing from one item of your to-do list to another?
- Do you find it difficult to focus on the present moment without your mind preoccupied on other thoughts?
- Do you feel like you’re running on automatic pilot without lots of awareness of the moment?
- Do you feel like you are stopping daily to smell the roses or is your day one unending blur of go-go-go?
If you’re on the busyness treadmill, perhaps it’s time to reevaluate. Is this the life that you want? What if you could substitute busy for productive and stressed for calm?
Ok, before I go further, I want you to know this might start sounding a little “woo-woo” to some of you. Hang in there and keep in mind, if you answered “yes” to any of the questions above, you need a little help. Remember, even U.S. Marines at Quantico use this stuff!
With that said, one highly effective way to slow down a bit is through “mindfulness.” You probably have heard of it. But do you know what it is and how to incorporate it into your daily life?
Mindfulness is about literally living in the moment. It’s being deliberate and intentional. It’s about experiencing the moments instead of rushing through them. We often equate mindfulness with meditation, but you can practice mindfulness in other ways as well.
Being an amateur photographer, I equate the difference between busyness and mindfulness to driving along some beautiful stretch of road like the Pacific Coast Highway on the California coast. You can pull the car over and jump out at a vista point and snap a few quick photos and rush off to the next overlook. Or you can soak in the moment. Enjoy the spectacular scenery. Smell the fresh air. Look into the eyes of your travel companion and say, “Wow! This is truly amazing. Look at that. And to be here with you. How special is that!”
Do you see the difference? One is a busy existence of rush, rush, rush to the next thing and the other is an appreciation for the moment by capturing and savoring the experience.
Here’s another example of mindfulness at work. My business partner, Chris, loves to play in the woods and is an avid animal tracker. When he was little, his grandfather would ask him to sit perfectly still (no small accomplishment for Chris now, much less when he was five-year old) with his eyes closed so he could listen to everything within earshot in an attempt to locate what was creating the sounds. The young Chris got to the point within five minutes that he could rattle off all of the animals he could hear, cars passing in the distance, and even his own breath. He remembers those lessons fondly and uses that same level of focus when he is coaching his clients, listening to his wife, or still sitting in the woods.
So where does the “magic pill” come in? I hate to burst your bubble, but there is no actual pill. Mindfulness is your pill and you can take a dose every day to live a deeper and richer life. Here are five things you can do to incorporate mindfulness and get that calm “high” you are looking for during your day:
- Take a walk or a run. Being outside and letting go of your day can be liberating and calming. It’s a great way to start or end your day, but not a bad way to inject some serenity in the middle of your day either. Even being in less than ideal weather, like a windy or rainy day, can be great since you focus on the experience – feeling the wind, appreciating it, etc.
- Take a three-minute breath break. When you don’t have time for a longer meditation session, taking a short breathing break can do wonders to ease your stress or help you let go of negative emotions like anger or discontent. Simply calm yourself and focus on your breathing, inhaling and exhaling each breath to restore you and bring a sense of peace to your day.
- Appreciate the here and now. I’m a serious runner and like most runners, I’m usually on a mission – to complete a certain workout at a certain pace or go a certain distance. That’s great for my physical training but it doesn’t always help me with my mindfulness. So what I do is take time to stop long enough on a scenic run to soak it all in. That two or ten minutes of being calm sitting on a rock at the edge of a rushing river and being in the moment makes the run even more enjoyable.So regardless if you are rushing out of the house or busy at the office, take a couple minutes to pause. Experience the sounds, the thoughts, the energy. Enjoy the beauty. Get relaxed by the solitude or energized by the sounds. Feel and live in the moment.
- Mix things up. Take a different chair. Whether it’s in the conference room at work or in your family room at home, sit in a different chair. Break your habits and experience a new vantage point. Whether it’s the chair you sit in or the route you take to the grocery store, mixing things up is a great way to open yourself up to a new experience. Perhaps going to the farmer’s market instead of the grocery store? It could be going to a different restaurant instead of your old standby or interacting with your kids in a spontaneous way that is new and different. The world takes on a new and fresh perspective when you break some of your patterns.
- Set a mindfulness alarm. Pick a few things in your daily activities that you can set as reminders or alarms for yourself. Then, pay attention to the details and focus in on the moment when those alarms take place. For example, you could set an alarm around meal preparation. Focus on the smells, sights, taste and touch of the food as you are preparing dinner. Be mindful of your knife as it’s slicing vegetables. Soak in the aroma as each vegetable is chopped. Or maybe take what is a stressful situation and change it. Instead of feeling anxious at the stoplight when you’re driving, use it as a trigger for your mindfulness alarm. Focus on substituting waiting for the light with anxious anticipation to get where you’re going sooner to a chance to decompress and relax for a moment. Stop and feel your breath. Sit calmly and quietly until the light changes. Take in the sights and sounds around you. Be aware of others. And let go of your anxiousness.
