Mental Health Matters: practicing mindfulness

Ariana Papcun, Editor

Sometimes life can be very difficult, events can sometimes be draining and take a toll on a daily basis. It’s important to remember who you are and why you are here. Mindfulness is the ability to focus on the present moment. We can be mindful wherever we are—when we’re cooking, cleaning, running, walking or meditating. 

According to Heathline, mindfulness is controlling your mind rather than letting it control you. With practicing mindful patience and repetition, the mind can be still. 

Mindfulness can be practiced in many ways, such as meditation, prayer, finding peace, yoga and exercising kindness and gratitude. 

Meditation and prayer: According to Forbes, meditation helps to decrease anxiety and stress. Tuning the negative thoughts out and relaxing is very beneficial to your walk with mindfulness. Meditation can help increase self- awareness and gain an understanding of why we are here. Prayer can also help to relieve tension with others and obtain a sense of belonging, and it also helps to find out your purpose. It can also help to figure out your goals, values and missions in your life. 

Finding peace within yourself: When you figure out ways to find peace, that’s when you can positively share it with others. According to Mindful Leader, mindfulness starts when we make peace with our own thoughts, actions, emotions and bodies. What we experience with peacefulness should be proportional to what we let others experience with us. 

Yoga: Yoga is used to relax, find mindful peace and feel calm. It can help slow the body down or increase your heart rate. Yoga is very beneficial to your mind and soul. Yoga will help to focus on one thought at a time. 

Exercising kindness and gratitude: According to Mindful Leader, being grateful for all the good things that you experience will help to nurture hope. You can exercise gratitude by focusing on one person, place or thing that you are very grateful for having in your life. You can also find the good in everything and find ways to be kind and have compassion. 

The mind relaxes and becomes a safe place when we practice mindfulness. It’s important to always remember to be mindful even when life is rough.