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If you have been longing to connect with your inner self, find peace and enhance your mental health, mindfulness is the right tool for you.
While different cultures and theories have their own way of engaging in this ancient practice, their essence often remains the same. The goal is to become aware of the present moment and what you are feeling, thinking and behaving at the moment.
It plays a prominent role in the Buddhist culture, where it's derived from the word 'Sati'. It's an ancient practice that emphasizes on your internal awarenss. This awareness is often linked to higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction.
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Types of mindfulness: Keys to inner peace
It's not about how you do it, rather how it helps you and why you want to try it out. There're endless techniques that can help you become more mindful.
All these practices have a common thread to pay attention to yourself in a non-judgemental manner. Here are five common types of mindfulness you can try:
1) 5 sense mindfulness
As the name suggests the 5 sense technique encourages us to engage our senses and become more mindful using them.
The most common form of this tool is the 54321 grounding tool. Grounding exercises help us orient to the present and notice what's in our control. Like a true Stoic would say, think about things that you can control and things that you can not.
To practice the 5 sense mindfulness, look at an object near you. It can be a persona, animal or thing. Once you look at them, engage your visual senses, and notice five characteristics about them that you can clearly see.
Next engage your hearing, and list four things you can hear. If you can't hear anything, try imagining four positive tunes. Next, touch three things around you, and describe their texture.
How do they feel? Now, try to see if you can taste anything, and, finally, if you can describe one smell. Take your time in engaging your senses.
2) Everyday mindfulness
The beauty about everyday techniques is that they don't require special training or equipment. They can be with you 24x7 and are free of cost. Do you have a water bottle next to you? Pick it up, and try drinking the water.
However, there's only one condition - drink slowly and imagine it passing through your throat. There may be other things happening in your environment, but you choose to allocate your entire attention on drinking water.
That doesn't necessarily have to be with water. You can pick up a pebble, chocolate or even a dry fruit.
3) Mindfulness meditation
Meditation is a formal practice that can help you become more mindful. There are many apps available that can help you with guided meditations.
They're often also recorded by mental health professionals, who may also divide the meditations for the respective mental health conditions. For instance, guided meditations can be very helpful in the treating insomnia or other sleep conditions.
4) Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy
CBT and being mindful are interconnected. In MBCT, the person is guided towards becoming more oriented and mindful of their thoughts.
Once they're able to do that, they may be more receptive to modifying their thoughts. It typically combines cognitive techniques, breathing and mindfulness strategies.
5) Mindfulness-based stress reduction
Mindfulness-based stress reduction talks about becoming aware of our reactions and responses to the external environment.
For instance, stress is our perceived inability to cope with the situation. What happens if you're able to respond differently to a perceived threat? What would happen if you're able to notice your resources when feeling stress? Becoming mindful can allow you to achieve that.
Before trying any of the aforementioned stuff, notice your breathe right now. How does it feel like? Is it too fast, or is too slow?
If you have a dog, you will notice that they tend to breathe very fast and often are restless. However, if you notice a turtle, their breathe is super slow and tend to live longer.
If you want to benefit from the above practices, try becoming mindful of your breath first. The key to mindfulness is not eradicating all your life problems, but taking a stance that gives you a sense of control and freedom.
Janvi Kapur is a counselor with a Master's degree in applied psychology with a specialization in clinical psychology.
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