seven benefits of practising daily mindfulness:
1. lowering stress levels
Stress often comes from worrying about what’s happened and what we could’ve done differently/better, or concerns about the future.
As mindfulness encourages us to be in the moment, and focus on what’s around us, it helps us to lower our stress levels and take things one step at a time.
If you’re feeling stressed at work, here are steps to help reduce your stress levels so that you can focus more.
2. improved focus
The key aspect of mindfulness, and any meditation practice, is focusing on one thing at a time. Focus on what’s in front of you and nothing else.
A regular mindfulness practice can, over time, help you focus more on projects that you’re working on, which can lead to better results.
While many people often praise the concept of multi-tasking, it can lead to more errors and higher stress levels. Focusing on one task at a time can reduce these things and help you get tasks done faster.
3. greater control over your emotions
Mindfulness helps to reduce our temptation to catastrophise. Which means we have greater control over our emotions and we’re less likely to act impulsively.
Breathing exercises can really help to pull you out of negative emotions if you feel your emotions beginning to nosedive.
4. better personal and professional relationships
As your communication skills improve, so, too, will your personal and professional relationships.
Mindfulness can really help you to see what other people think and feel, which can provide great benefits to your life, and the lives of the people around you.
5. develops self-awareness
When our emotions get the better of us, we can get swept away in the moment. Slowing our brains down to focus on the moment pulls us away from how we feel so that we can see situations, and ourselves, more objectively. This can help us problem solve more effectively and efficiently, and handle difficult situations more comfortably.
6. improving communication skills
Because of the improved self-awareness and emotional regulation, mindfulness can help us communicate better with those around us. We’re less focused on our own needs and more in tune with what’s happening around us, including what the people around us are saying, doing, and feeling.
7. reducing chronic pain
Mindfulness practices can improve chronic pain symptoms, regardless of their cause. It helps to slow down the overactive nervous system’s response, which is one of the major causes of chronic pain.
Mindfulness also helps you to identify triggers which may exacerbate your chronic pain, such as meeting anxiety, certain tasks that you dislike, or people in the office.
“The idea of staying consistent and "practice makes progress" - it's so simple but I probably would have overlooked it.”
how to be more present throughout your day
You don’t have to start big. You could start by focusing on the here and now in between tasks, or when you’re doing something that would normally cause you to daydream.
You could even practise mindfulness at work, taking a few deep breaths to improve your focus, reduce your stress levels, and enhance your performance.
When you go for a walk, consider paying attention to the sensory details you don’t usually notice because you’re too busy thinking:
- what can you see?
- what can you smell?
- what can you hear?
- how does it feel when you walk?
- can you feel the textures of the ground underneath your feet?
- do you put more weight on one side than the other?
It’s amazing what you notice when you pay attention.
get started today:
Alternatively, you could try a short meditation, like a body scan. This helps us to observe the sensations of the body in an objective way. It can be particularly useful for long-term or chronic pain conditions as a way to calm overactive nervous systems.
If you’d like to try mindfulness for yourself, try our 10-minute guided meditation below, or check out our beginner’s guide.
