Being Mindful in Your Daily Life?
Are You Truly Being Mindful in Your Daily Life?
In today’s busy lifestyle we often lose track of the importance of “just being.” When is the last time you sat quietly and listened to your own breathing, not thinking about the stresses of your day? The answer for most would be, rarely. Research is now showing that being mindful can help you reduce stress which in turn leads to a decrease in stress induced inflammation that a lot of us have.
In a recent study of students in a mindfulness class, it was shown that reading comprehension scores and the working memory capacity of these students improved tremendously. They also found that these students had fewer distracting thoughts and were able to distinguish between an emotional driven thought versus a simple thought. Distinguishing between the two thoughts allowed the students to look at emotionally driven thoughts as a project and something that could be worked on at another time.
In essence they were better at prioritizing and focusing. We live in an age where we try to multi-task and in turn we feel more stressed and find it hard to prioritize to get things done. If we spent a little more time being mindful our society may be more productive and less stressed, leading to healthier individuals.
How does a person practice being mindful?
A great way to start is:
- sit quietly
- focusing on some soothing music
- focus on your breathing, an image or even a mantra
- allow yourself to focus only on whichever of those things you choose, pushing all other thoughts aside
- start with just a few minutes a day, maybe when you wake up in the morning or just before getting out of bed
Practicing mindfulness right away in the morning helps with your focus for the rest of the day and helps to minimize multi-tasking. It will also help make you more aware of emotional thoughts. You should try to end your day with 10-15 minutes of mindfulness as well. This will help alleviate any stress from the day and lead to better sleep.
The more mindful you are, the less stressed your body is. So how do you know just how stressed your body and mind are? One way to identify your stress level is to have your Heart Rate Variability tested. This test is a reflection of our level of stress and inner emotional states based off of beat-to-beat alterations in heart rate or pulse. We here at Reed Chiropractic have the ability to test for this. It is call the Insight Subluxation Station, and it just take minutes to perform. This test will give you a good baseline on where your body is and how it changes in relation to practicing active mindfulness. Are you ready to start on your path to a healthier, happier mind and body?
For more information on being mindful in your daily life contact us at Reed Chiropractic Tempe Arizona.
