How to Incorporate Mindfulness into Everyday Life

In today’s day and age, it may feel impossible sometimes to make room for anything else. But incorporating mindfulness into your everyday life can be as simple as taking a few seconds out of your daily schedule and focusing on the now.

The practice of mindfulness can be very beneficial in reducing stress, anxiety, and helping tackle some of those big emotions for little ones.

So, what exactly counts as mindfulness? 

Mindfulness doesn’t just have to be meditation or deep breathing exercises, even though those are helpful exercises. 

Mindfulness can be taking a minute of your daily commute to reflect, closing your eyes and centering your mind and body, or even just taking in what’s around you. 

One of the keys of mindfulness is focusing on your five senses. Take a minute and think about this now: what do you see around you? What do you smell? What can you touch? Can you hear anything? Taste something? 

Answering those few questions just helped to ground you in this moment and slow your mind down. 

Let’s look at our Five Senses of Mindfulness created by Yolonda Deon Tyler to see what you can start practicing with your children:

5 Senses of Mindfulness 

Sight - I can see with my eyes (Peekaboo, I see you, do you see me?) 

Hearing-I can hear with my ears (bell or sound of theme) 

Taste - I can taste with my tongue (Tongue out) 

Smell - I can smell with my nose (touch nose and sniff)

Touch - I can touch with my fingers

acupressure finger touches | P.B.W.M.) 

All of these little moments of mindfulness add up and allow you to slow down what’s around you. It's important to take just a few minutes for yourself that can help you stay in the present. 

These small exercises you can begin to slowly incorporate into your week, and then transition into doing every day. Then the sky’s the limit! There’s no telling what these simple practices could do for you and those around you. 

Try a mindfulness exercise today!