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If you’re like most people, your attention is constantly hijacked by checking email, answering texts, scrolling social media, and consuming content. This makes it difficult to maintain focus on anything for a sustained period. Could mindfulness be a solution to this problem?
People often talk about mindfulness like it’s a superpower that can help you focus, better deal with stress and anxiety, and even feel happier. The benefits of being more mindful have even been proven in books like “Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom.”
Sounds pretty great right? Maybe, but what if you’re someone who doesn’t want to meditate?
When you think of mindfulness you probably conjure images of someone sitting in quiet contemplation without any distractions. Well, the truth is it’s easy to be mindful without meditation.
Many of the following exercises are how I got started with mindfulness. This practice has had a profound impact on my life. Now I’m much more focused, able to achieve goals, and I enjoy the everyday moments that make up my life. Hopefully, they can do the same for you. So, without further ado, here are 15 quick and simple ways to be mindful without meditation.
1. Notice Small Moments
As you go about your day, pay attention to small moments, and note them in your mind. This is a great exercise for beginners. When I started with this it was around the holidays and I remember noticing little things like the smile on my kids’ faces when they sat with Santa or spent time with family. These moments don’t have to be profound; they can be a simple as petting your dog or savoring a really good cup of coffee.
At the end of the day, write down what you recall noticing. Then record how it made you feel.
2. Observe Your Thoughts
Practice observing thoughts to learn how to detach from them. Here’s how you can do it:
- Set a timer for three minutes.
- Find somewhere comfortable to sit where you can still be alert. Close your eyes, or if you prefer you can keep them open with a relaxed gaze.
- Imagine you’re standing on the side of a slow-moving stream and you’re watching leaves float by ever so slowly. When a thought arises, imagine placing it on a leaf and letting it float on.
- If you get stuck on a thought just acknowledge it and let it go on down the stream.
You can do this exercise in various ways. Instead of leaves in a stream consider waves crashing on the beach, trains passing a crossing, or birds in the sky.
Try doing this a few times and see if you can do it longer as you get better at it.
3. Mindful Walking
Spending time in nature and taking a walk is a great opportunity for mindfulness. A mindful walk is all about paying attention to your surroundings. It will teach you to slow down and be in the moment.
- As you begin your walk, start by noticing your stride. Is it long or short? When your feet hit the ground is it hard or soft?
- After a couple of minutes start to notice the movement in the rest of your body. Does it shift from side to side? What about your arms, do they sway back and forth?
- When a few more minutes have passed expand your awareness of sounds. Make note of what you hear. Then every few minutes expand to other senses like sight, smell, and feel.
Once you’ve gone through each sense try to bring it all together. When you’re finished notice how you feel.
4. The Waiting Game
One of my favorite mindfulness without meditation exercises is what I like to call “The Waiting Game.” When I’m sitting somewhere waiting, like a doctor’s office, instead of mindlessly scrolling through my phone, I try to clear my thoughts and take in my surroundings. Typically, I focus on sound.
Often, it’s quiet, and I sit and enjoy the stillness, but when it’s not I try to make a mental note of all the different sounds. This exercise helps me clear my mind and enables me to disconnect from the world by keeping my phone in my pocket.
The next time you have to wait, try not to instantly pull out your phone and instead just sit and notice.
5. Mindful Cooking
Cooking is another easy way to bring more mindfulness to your day. Next time you’re preparing a meal, use your senses to notice everything you’re doing. When you work with different ingredients ask yourself questions:
- What are the textures of the ingredients?
- What do they smell like individually?
- What do they smell like when they’re cooking?
- Do the smells change when you add new ingredients?
- If you’re chopping vegetables, notice the sound.
- What does it sound like when ingredients are cooking.
Immerse yourself in the experience of cooking.
6. Mindful Eating
Like mindful cooking, eating mindfully means tuning into the experience of eating food. Once again focusing on your senses ask yourself the following questions:
- How hungry do you feel?
- What does the food smell like?
- Can you describe what it looks like?
- Take a bite, what does it taste like?
- Take another bite, what does the texture feel like?
- What sound does the food make when you bite into it?
- How does the food make you feel?
Once you have taken more than a few bites, ask yourself if your hunger has changed.
7. Accept Strong Emotions
The next time you’re experiencing a strong emotion like anger or sadness try this exercise.
1. Start by bringing awareness to the emotion. Notice how it feels in your body.
2. Take a few deep breaths, breathing into where you feel the emotion physically.
3. Expand your awareness and allow room for this emotion. Create space for it and allow it to be there.
4. Once you’ve sat with it for a few moments accept it. You can make peace with it by acknowledging the unpleasant feeling and making room for it.
You don’t have to be comfortable with strong emotions but making room for them will make it easier for you to detach from them. Know that you don’t have to act on these emotions, just make space for them to occur. This will help you learn how to give up the illusion of control.
8. Create Mindful Routines
Make your routine more mindful. Just like the exercises of walking, cooking, and eating, you can expand your senses as you go about your daily tasks. Whether it’s doing household chores or brushing your teeth.
9. Notice Five Things
This is a mindful activity you can do whenever you have some free time, or you find yourself distracted by emotions. Simply pause and look around whatever room you’re in and notice five things you can see. Then repeat it by noticing five things you can hear and five things you can feel.
10. Sleepy Sounds At Night
One of my favorite hobbies is backpacking, and when I’m sleeping in my tent at night, I really enjoy trying to pick out all the different sounds I can hear. Crickets, birds chirping, leaves rustling. Luckily you don’t have to be deep in the woods to practice this. At night when you’re trying to fall asleep, notice all the different sounds you hear. I love nature sounds, but you can do this whether your window is open or not.
As someone who suffers from insomnia, I can tell you this exercise is a great way to fall asleep if you’re having trouble.
11. The Grateful Five
Fostering gratitude is a great way to increase feelings of happiness. Don’t take my word for it, according to Harvard Medical School, “in positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.”
So, one simple way to add gratitude to your day is by quickly naming five things you’re grateful for. This is a great exercise to practice regularly. Add a reminder on your phone and try doing it a few times a week. I promise you’ll be surprised at how much it improves your mood.
If you’re looking for more ways to level up your mood, read my post: 20 Ways to Improve Your Mood and Motivation Today
12. Deep Breathing
This exercise is easy to gloss over because it’s so simple, but that’s really what mindfulness is. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Learn to connect to the present moment by stopping throughout your day to do some deep breathing. The easiest way to do this is by taking ten breaths. Start by counting one after you finish your first exhale and work your way up from there.
13. Mindful Parenting
Believe it or not mindful parenting in practice is actually pretty easy. Like many other mindfulness exercises, it’s all about being present.
- Watching your kids while they play, notice the different activities.
- Observe their smiles.
- Listen to what they tell you. Mentally note when they say something sweet or funny.
- What noises do they make?
As a parent of three children, two of which are currently teenagers, I know that having kids can be tough. However, I promise you that if you stop every once in a while to be present it will remind you why you love them so much.
For more information about mindful parenting, read my post: 20 Ways to Create a Mindful Family
14. Mindful Showering
When you have a busy schedule and little time for yourself, showering can sometimes feel like a burden. The fast pace of modern life makes it easy to forget to slow down and enjoy your showers. But, taking time to shower mindfully can actually have benefits that go beyond just feeling pampered.
Our brains are wired to notice and retain information that has significance in our lives. When we shower mindfully, we are intentionally paying attention to our actions and thoughts – instead of just ‘getting it done.’ This makes it easier to recognize patterns and identify triggers that can cause stress or lead to negative behavior outside of the shower. Here are some ways you can shower mindfully:
- Take a few minutes to feel the warm water as it washes over your body.
- Feel the steam, and the soap as it cleanses your skin.
- Notice the pressure of the water.
- As you scrub be aware of the sensation.
- Make note of the smells from your body wash, shampoo, and conditioner.
- Take longer than usual to really immerse yourself in the experience.
15. Do a Mindful Activity
There are so many fun activities that can incorporate mindfulness like painting, and playing video games, sports, or board games. All these activities can help you be in the moment. Whatever one you choose, just make sure to give it your full attention.
A word of caution though, when playing games be sure to focus on ones that are not competitive or stressful. For example, a board game like Codenames is fun and collaborative, and a game like Monopoly could have you flipping the board off the table. The same is true for video games, stay away from Call of Duty and play something like Stardew Valley (which by the way is also a board game).
Build Mindfulness Without Meditation Into Your Day
Learning how to add mindfulness to your day without always having to stop and meditate is a great way to connect to the present. And, by connecting to the present you will likely end up with more feelings of happiness. Why? Because most of the time we waste our energy on trying to get to the next great thing, but how often do we stop and just be?
Don’t let your life pass you by, be present for all the small moments every day.
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