Mindfully Experiencing Life: 7 Benefits for the Mind and Body
Distractions come easily in modern society. We often have phones within reach and find ease in stepping out of the moment. We even experience an immediate reduction in anxiety during these times. While that immediate anxiety relief feels good, it, unfortunately, has long-term consequences. We eventually harbor a compulsive drive to reduce stress and increase our “feel good” neurotransmitters through these distractions. Our bodies and minds enjoy the hit of dopamine that instant gratification often renders. Unfortunately, these quick hits soon deplete our resources and leave us craving more. In addition, we become unable to tolerate inevitable life stress without these distractions. What is hard short-term, but incredibly beneficial long-term, is building the tolerance to cope with this stress in a truly healing way. This means, no utilization of quick fixes through phones, television, drugs, alcohol, or food. Healing relies on your ability to identify the stress and assist your body and mind in navigating this stress through adaptive coping skills such as deep breathing, prayer, meditation, crying, talking to a friend, or engaging in grounding techniques.
Mindfully experiencing life can increase gratitude and reduce both anxiety and depression. Mindfulness is simply experiencing moments fully. It’s observing details and maintaining focus on each moment as it comes. It’s a learned exercise that comes easier with time as you slowly train your mind to refocus on the moment. In this way, you are pulling your focus away from past or future events. You are also stepping away from distractions. This may look like going for a walk, observing all the details of your surroundings, and noticing how walking feels in your mind and body as you engage in the act. It can be practiced in daily tasks or during new and exciting activities. It’s often easier to practice this in new activities as the mind is more intrigued by all that’s going on. That being said, the mind can also be trained to enjoy this in the simplest moments of your daily routine.
The act of mindful living also leaves room for planning and even room for thinking back on past experiences. Instead of continuously catching yourself lost in the past or future, these are conscious moments in which you are choosing to focus on that. Essentially, you are building a skill that helps with focus and that gives you the ability to direct your thoughts and observations rather than your thoughts leading you in many different directions.
Mindfully experiencing life has many benefits for both your mind and body. Let’s dive into a few of these benefits:
Increased Curiosity and Decreased Judgment: When you practice mindfulness, you are essentially opening your mind, observing, and taking in information. Many times, this allows you to experience moments in a whole new way. You begin to notice things such as:
how your sheets feel in your hands as you make your bed
how the droplets of water look that remain on the sink after washing your hands
the smell, taste, and colors of your meals
the way the steering wheel feels under your hands as you drive
the sound of your shoes hitting the pavement during a run
the eye contact and emotion felt between two people when focused
These moments that were once brushed over now feel full. You begin to recognize that there is so much going on in a moment that can be observed. Curiosity often peaks as we learn to lean into these moments and better experience them. Judgment often dissipates as we practice observation rather than trying to define these moments.
2. Increased Gratitude: With increased observation, we can quickly become aware of all that is happening without any effort on our part. It’s easier to recognize that we are part of a bigger system. We can observe flowers blooming, bread rising in the oven, snowflakes falling from the sky, or wood crackling in a fire. This awareness naturally leads to gratitude as there is so much beauty in these moments. This beauty is often forgotten when distracted, but it’s always there. There is so much of it all around us. We just need to open our eyes to it.
3. Increased Focus: When practicing mindfulness, you are in the act of training your brain to come back to the moment. Each time you come back, this focus is achieved. Practicing this continuously will strengthen this neural connection and allow the act to become easier, perhaps even natural. With greater focus, you can experience more efficiency, better connection with others, and reduced anxiety.
4. Improved Mind and Body Connection: When the mind is open and information from the current moment is sought, there is greater awareness of what is going on in both your mind and body. Instead of ignoring or suppressing these thoughts or feelings, we are paying attention to them. This allows us to better understand bodily sensations and needs. With the decrease in judgment, these sensations are observed and attended to helpfully. It becomes more evident that what happens in the mind affects the body and vice versa.
5. Increased Pain Management: Improved mind and body awareness can also increase your ability to manage and even reduce pain. Your mind is a very powerful tool that can assist you in regulating this pain through reframing or redirecting thoughts or through the utilization of relaxation techniques. When practicing something such as deep breathing or visualization, you can change the chemistry in your body. This act creates a relaxation response in both your mind and body. You are actively reducing tension in your body and therefore reducing pain.
6. Decreased Suffering: Piggybacking off of the last point, the way we perceive pain in and of itself can change how we experience it. There is a popular quote stating that “pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional”. This pain can be physical or emotional. Judgment of this pain as well as thoughts propelling us to past regret or future fears is what creates suffering. Think about a time in which you were emotionally hurting. Imagine how this experience could have been different if you were able to hold space for the pain and emotion to release without any judgments, regrets, or fears. If we feel the pain as it surfaces, observe it, and let it run its course, the time it exists is often shortened and the aspect of suffering no longer exists.
7. Reduction in Stress: Taking into account that mindfulness can increase focus, decrease pain, improve mind and body connection, decrease judgment and increase both curiosity and gratitude, it goes without saying that stress reduction is a byproduct. You may have the same situation happening all around you, but you will better be able to tolerate it as you have strengthened your mind and reduced your reactionary response. Instead of running away from stress, you now have tools to help you navigate it and eventually get to the other side.
Mindfully experiencing life has numerous benefits that can greatly enhance your quality of life. Like most new skills, it takes time to build this into your life in a way that feels natural. In the beginning, it is a conscious exercise that requires practice and discipline. The feeling you get back from this practice is in and of itself a reward that will help propel you forward and increase your ability to navigate this way of living with ease. As always, if I can be helpful please don’t hesitate to reach out and schedule a free first session.
Supporting You,
