Mindfulness Practice for Reducing Stress & Anxiety

Stress and anxiety can mentally impact and exhaust you. It can even make your body experience pain and soreness. We simply can’t separate the mind and body as both are intimately linked and what happens in one affects the other. In recent years research has shown the positive impacts of mindfulness practice for reducing stress and anxiety.

Most beginner students comment that when they come to practice mindfulness they simply can’t, their mind is too full and they can’t focus long enough to still the mind. The key point to remember when you’re starting out with mindfulness practices is to keep them active!

For example, you can practice mindfulness while on a walk, you can do it while sitting with your eyes open, there are no hard and fast rules, in fact, you want to find a tool and technique that works best for you.

Mindfulness is a type of meditation practice in which you focus on your focus, sensing, and feeling into the present moment. It is about paying attention to the little things we usually do not pay attention to and it’s about listening to your body and having the chance to feel more connected to your body. Now the mind will do what it does best and jump from here to there, especially when we first start but with time and practice, we’ll get to notice more and more that we have space between thoughts. You can do this practice in the comfort of your own home or a safe space wherein you can relax and calm yourself throughout the day to ease stress and anxiety.

Make this practice a priority in your day, set aside 5 minutes where you make a cup of tea, and sit and absorb all of your focus in what it’s like to experience that cup of tea at the moment. Your body against the chair, the cup of tea in your hand, the taste and warmth of the tea, and so on. Really noticing and becoming absorbed with your entire experience of having a cup of tea. It’s the constant racing and jumping of the mind that can run us ragged, the mind is constantly operating from a place of past issues or future anxieties. These thoughts then drive our body chemistry, actions, and behaviors which then influence the quality of our entire life.

It’s why spending the time working with mindfulness and yoga is so important, it can truly influence the quality of our thoughts, actions, and therefore our quality of life and all of the relationships in our life. Start with 5 minutes a day and commit to that no matter what comes and let's see what happens from there?

I hope to hear your experiences with this practice in the comment section below.

I'll see you on the mat soon Kxx