Mindfulness: How it Works

Ever find yourself going on auto-pilot, performing activities without being fully aware of what you’re doing?

Mindfulness transcends imagery of sitting on the floor meditating. Mindfulness is a moment-to-moment awareness of your thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations and surrounding environment. You notice what’s going on around you in the present.

We have so many external pressures to multitask from waking to sleeping. Information overload is overwhelming. Mindfulness helps you separate the urge to react to every thought or emotion that pops up as you progress through the long, active day.

You can choose how to manage your thoughts. How should you respond to the latest political post from your cousin? Is it better to get upset and rant? Or, is it better to just let it go?

The practice of mindfulness has two parts:

1. Awareness. You become aware of your environment and how you react to things.
2. Expectation. When you know what usually happens physically and emotionally as you encounter different situations, you know what to expect.  You can better navigate your reactions.

Stillness can help you be mindful. Being present in the moment and taking time to fully experience what’s happening is great mindfulness. You can also pay attention to your breath. Acknowledge the thoughts that pop up and let them pass.

Mindfulness can help with weight management. Paying attention to your food and fully experiencing meal time is a great preventative for carelessly shoveling back more food than you intended. Notice the physical response in your body while you eat. How does your body feel after eating too many donuts? How does it feel after a nutritious meal? This can help you make choices to eat the food that makes you feel fantastic.

Listen in as Anna Pace shares how you can be more mindful.