How to Practice Mindfulness? 6 Simple Tips to Try

When you’re looking to take a break, the default option is a “mindless” activity like scrolling through TikTok or binge-watching that TV series you’ve been meaning to check out. But learning how to practice mindfulness could give our brains what we need to recharge, reset, and feel less stress.

“Mindfulness is the practice of cultivating awareness for the present moment,” explains Jenna Monaco, a certified meditation and mindfulness teacher and stress coach.

You can practice mindfulness throughout your day, whether it’s daily tasks like walking to the store or parenting or dedicated activities such as meditation and yoga.

The most fundamental goal of any mindfulness exercise is to connect with your bodily senses, explains Monaco. You want to tune into what you’re seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and even tasting without distraction.

What Is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness, in plain English, is nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment. “Mindfulness is an attitude of paying attention,” explains Catherine Tingey, E-RYT 200. It’s the process of calmly focusing your attention while passively acknowledging your thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations.

Benefits of Mindfulness

As mindfulness has become more popular in the Western world, research conducted over the last 30 years suggests a remarkable range of benefits, including the following:

Reduced anxiety (including sleep, eating, panic, and phobic disorders)
Enhanced cognitive function (processing speed, memory, focus, and empathy)
Greater levels of self-control and self-esteem
Increased levels of energy
Decreased levels of chronic pain
Improved immune function
Enhanced cardiovascular function
Reduced asthma symptoms
Improvements in hormonal disorders

A 2010 meta-analysis concluded that mindfulness-based stress relief can help improve your mood and reduce your anxiety. Moreover, the review notes that results were “robust,” effective “across a relatively wide range of severity,” suggesting it can be beneficial to practitioners experiencing severe depression or just having a bad day.

Mindfulness Exercises

Mindfulness is a quality we all possess, and it can be strengthened through mindfulness training. That training begins by cultivating stillness and silence, two precious commodities in our chaotic world. Here are some ways to practice it.

1. Observation

Did you know you’re practicing mindfulness every time you observe the world around you? Let’s try a more formal observation exercise.

Select an object and focus your gaze. It can be anything — a raisin, a postcard, a candle. Your visual focus (or drishti in Sanskrit) leads this exercise.
Describe your object. What color, size, shape, and texture is it? Concentrate on the descriptive nature of the object — not your feelings or judgments about it.

2. Body inventory

A body scan is a fantastic way to focus attention and bring a diagnostic presence to your self-awareness.

Begin in a comfortable position, either seated or lying down.
Start from the bottom up. Direct your body awareness methodically starting with your toes.
Visualize a warm, white glow. Allow that glow to spotlight each body part as you move upward. Continue letting that glow warm your legs, your pelvis, your torso and arms, all the way up through the crown of your head.
Explore the sensations. As your focus travels up your body, take note of the feelings and thoughts that arise.

3. Deep breathing

Long, deep breaths (known in yoga as pranayama) can activate the relaxation response by shutting down the “fight-or-flight” instinct in your brain and increasing activity in the “rest-and-digest” parasympathetic nervous system.

Find stillness. You can snag a deep breath just about anywhere. Take a moment to pause and stop moving.
Rest your lips together. Let your teeth separate, relax your jaw, and allow your tongue to sit heavy in your mouth.
Inhale fully and slowly through the nostrils. Imagine a balloon filling inside your belly. Pause at the top for one second.
Exhale fully and slowly through the nostrils. Continue breathing in and out as if the air enters your lungs through your ears. Pause at the top for one second.

4. Meditation

“The best way to cultivate the moment is through meditation,” says Andrew Barrett, a Vedic meditation teacher. What is meditation? It’s… mindfulness. Everything you’ve read here is a form of meditation, even though it doesn’t necessarily look like it. For a more traditional experience, follow these steps.

Find a comfortable seat. Traditionally, meditators sit cross-legged on the ground or on a cushion, but you can meditate anywhere, anytime — at your desk, on an airplane, or even on the couch.
Set a timer. Vedic meditation practices call for two 20-minute sessions daily, but shorter practices can reap excellent benefits as well. Begin with five-minute sessions and build up, if that feels appropriate. If you’re completely new to mindfulness meditation, consider using a guided meditation to stay focused and manage time.
Close your eyes. When the visual world disappears, you have an opportunity to look within yourself.
Begin breathing deeply. This triggers the relaxation response in the brain, and that softening often coincides with a flood of thoughts. “If your thoughts stray, gently bring yourself back to your breath,” Monaco advises.
Use a mantra to focus the mind. Some forms of meditation use a mantra, or chant, to laser-focus the mind. This can be a traditional Sanskrit phrase like, “Om shanti shanti” (“Om, peace, peace”), or it can be something more personal to you like, “I am loved.” Repeat your mantra as you continue to breathe, allowing thoughts to flow by you like water in a river.
“Notice the gentle, natural rhythm. Then take inventory of where there is tightness or tension in your body, and practice breathing into those areas,” she says.

With sustained practice, meditation can significantly reduce the stress hormone cortisol, and neuroscience research is even able to see the benefits of meditation in the brain.

“When we have a practice that connects us to our real selves,” says Barrett, “we connect regularly with the happiness inside us.” That happiness manifests itself, quite literally, in physical and emotional health.

Tips for Practicing Mindfulness

Here are some general guidelines to keep in mind during your mindfulness journey

1. Leave judgment at the door

“When we practice mindfulness, we refrain from judging our observations.” So if you’re thinking, “I suck at being mindful,” let that go immediately and move on.

Meaning you’re not scrutinizing your every move but instead accepting actions or sensations as they unfold and noticing them. (Then again, not judging yourself or anyone else is a generally good idea.)

2. Eat and drink mindfully

Among its benefits, mindful eating can help you eat smarter and lose weight.

“A great ritual to infuse mindfulness into your day is the preparation of your morning beverage,” says Tingey. “When you’re making tea or coffee, pay close attention to the sounds of boiling water, the first taste of liquid, and any sensations that arise in the body like your heartbeat and breath while drinking.”

“Eat without a TV, book, magazine, or phone near you,” adds Monaco. “Just enjoy the sensation of eating.”

3. Rework what you already do

Practicing mindfulness does not require significant life changes or big purchases. “My biggest tip for integrating mindfulness is to tweak what we already do to support a more mindful way of living,” says Monaco.

It could be as simple as skipping listening to music or podcasts while you’re working out or outside in nature. “Go for a walk or run without music and take in your environment through all of your senses,” says Monaco.

Or try what therapist Kristen Baird-Goldman, LMFT, recommends to her clients: Brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand. By practicing mindfulness during a routine activity, “we can self-narrate the process rather than spending that time being in the past or the future,” she says.

4. Practice gratitude

It’s challenging to stay mindful in the age of social media, where comparison and superficiality reign supreme. Combat those anxieties by cultivating gratitude. A 2017 study found that practicing gratitude improved participants’ emotion regulation and self-motivation.

Go the extra step and “gift yourself a mindfulness journal,” suggests Baird-Goldman. Not only can you record your experience on your mindfulness journey, you can make a habit of writing down exactly what you’re grateful for.

5. Make checking your phone the second thing you do after waking up

“Don’t check your phone in the morning until you’ve completed your morning routine, whatever that looks like for you,” says Monaco.

So have a relaxing breakfast, stretch, or even head out for a run. “When you start the day off putting your needs first, you tend to stay more present and grounded throughout the day.”

“The popularity of mindfulness is a reaction to our increasingly technocratic world which separates us from ourselves and nature,” adds Tingey.

So go ahead and see what happens when you put your mind to it!