Living in the present moment. Recognizing thoughts and emotions without judgment. Practicing compassion and gratitude. Exuding love to oneself and one’s surroundings. These are the core elements of living mindfully.
Mindful living has dozens of mental, emotional, and physical benefits, such as reducing stress levels, improving focus, building self-confidence, and increasing overall happiness. What’s more, because mindfulness deepens your awareness of yourself and your surroundings, introducing mindfulness into your health and home can improve your efforts to live sustainably.
The sooner you start making meaningful changes to the way you live, the sooner you can live a happier and more sustainable life. Here are a few actionable ways you can introduce mindfulness into your health and home today.
You only get one body. Mindfulness can help you take care of your body, which will help to prolong youthful feelings of good health. Here are some key mindful practices to adopt to improve your sense of health and well-being.
Meditation
Arguably the central practice of mindful living, meditation allows you to clear your mind of extraneous thoughts and emotions to focus on being here, now. There are dozens of proven health benefits of meditation, including more robust mental and physical health. It can be difficult to establish a meditation routine, especially for beginners who may not immediately recognize any results from the practice. You might want to experiment with different forms of meditation until you find one that feels comfortable to you.
Movement
It is no secret that regular exercise is imperative for good health. Yoga is a popular type of movement amongst mindfulness practitioners; the proper practice of yoga demands you to focus only on breathing and body position. However, as long as you are able to control your focus, bringing your awareness solely to the present moment, you can transform any form of exercise into a mindfulness practice.
The most important aspect of movement is that you do it regularly. Therefore, you might need to experiment with a variety of practices, from yoga and tai chi to walking, running, or weight lifting, to find a form of exercise you can do regularly.
Diet
Even an activity as simple as eating can be improved through the practice of mindfulness. You might consider how your diet is affecting other aspects of your life experience; what you eat becomes who you are, which means the foods you choose to ingest will impact everything from the development of acne across your skin to the intensity of your emotions.
Our diets also have a profound effect on the world around us, as some foods demand dramatically more resources to produce. You might modify your diet to eliminate foods that are causing you and the world around you harm, starting perhaps with simple swaps to nix acne-promoting foods.
In pursuit of a sustainable and healthful diet, you should start incorporating mindfulness into your mealtimes. With every bite, you should engage your senses, considering the aroma, taste, and texture of your food. During and after eating, you should pay attention to how your body and mind feel, so you can determine whether the foods you consumed help your mindfulness practice or harm your health and well-being.
Where and how you live can impact how you feel in the here and now. You should want to create a home that contributes to your mindfulness lifestyle and does not detract from it. To that end, here are some considerations you might make in designing and maintaining your home.
Energy Use
Humankind’s energy consumption choices have put the natural world in peril, so your home’s energy use should be a top concern as you strive to create a sustainable space that promotes mindfulness. Rather than spending money on purely aesthetic home renovation projects, you might invest in home upgrades that allow your home to consume less energy. Some examples of projects that improve your home in this way — and that offer long-term financial benefits — include:
-Roof repair or replacement
-New or additional insulation
-Energy-efficient home appliances
-New or resealed windows and doors
-Ceiling fans
Sustainable living
Of course, your home might have all sorts of sustainable upgrades, but if you are not taking steps to live in a sustainable way, all your renovations will go to waste. Some actions you might incorporate into your daily life to develop a truly eco-friendly home include:
-Turning off electronics when they are not in use.
-Using only as much water as you need
-Opting for natural home cleaners, pest control, and other chemicals
-Reducing waste and reusing or recycling whenever possible
As your home becomes more sustainable, you should find it easier to maintain mindfulness. Your thoughts will drift less frequently to worries about utility bills or the size of your carbon footprint, which means you can find more enjoyment in your home as it is right now.
Decoration
A cluttered home is the sign of a cluttered mind, and a cluttered mind is not a mindful one. Bright colors, busy patterns, covered surfaces, chaotic walls, and crowded floors will demand your attention; in some circumstances, too much décor in your home can cause stress and anxiety, which make mindfulness even more difficult to achieve.
To ensure that your surroundings help your mindfulness practice, you should strip your home of excessive ornamentation, preferring instead a minimalist, neutral interior style. Muted, neutral tones, natural materials, and minimal décor on walls and surfaces should help focus your thoughts and bring a much-needed sense of calm to your home.
You can start taking steps toward a more mindful way of life today. By incorporating mindfulness into your health and home, you will find your thoughts begin to focus, and your well-being improve.
By Katie Brenneman