How to practice mindfulness

You can practise mindfulness in different ways. One way is to learn mindfulness meditation which involves paying attention to your moment-to-moment experience with acceptance, patience and kindness to yourself. Another way is to use ‘daily mindfulness practices’. These are instances where you pause, breathe and bring moment-to-moment awareness to an aspect of your everyday life, such as the brewing of your tea or the taking of your morning shower. By pausing in this way, you might notice the aroma of your drink or the sensation of the water as you take in your experience fully. So often, the uniqueness of the moment is lost as our focus shifts to simply getting through the day.

To meditate, you could use a point of focus, such as your breath. When your mind wanders away from following the breath and strays into thinking, worrying, or planning, just notice where it has wandered to and gently guide it back to following the physical sensation of the in-breath and the out-breath. This type of meditation helps to develop a capacity to remain focused while also being alert to distractions as they arise. With practice, you start to recognise that thoughts are not facts and will come and go of their own accord, if you allow them to do so.

One of the most common barriers is the feeling that you don’t have time to meditate. The irony is however, that practising mindfulness meditation can help you to become more focused, less willing to be distracted and more time efficient.  As little as thirty seconds of time spent meditating can make a difference to your ability to respond to the most stressful of situations. If you can take just a few minutes to still your body and sit quietly on a regular basis, you will soon be able to tap into a sense of calm whenever you need it most.

Negative thoughts such as ‘I’m not clever enough’, or ‘I’m useless’ can appear almost audibly like a soundtrack in the mind. They belong to the inner critical voice, which is a type of dialogue that pops in and out of our conscious thinking and takes the form of ideas, suggestions, thoughts and expressions that guide behaviour. The inner critical voice is the familiar negative tune our mind starts to hum to remind us of how inadequate it deems us to be. Over time, it can diminish self-esteem and impact negatively on our ability to make decisions.

The first step towards taming the inner critical voice is to notice its arrival. This is easier said than done as we’re so used to hearing it that it can feel as though it’s intimately connected to who we are. This is where the practice of mindfulness comes in useful, as it helps us to notice when the inner critical voice starts to speak.

The next time it appears, see if you can hear what it says, notice how often it visits and how it makes you feel. You might want to label it in some way, such as, ‘negative voice telling me I’m not quick enough’. In response, acknowledge its presence and gently invite it to leave. Noticing how vicious your own commentary can be often provides a much-needed moment for reflection. See if you can replace or soften its content with self-compassionate words of kindness, such as ‘I’m strong enough’ or ‘capable enough’ to carry on.

As you continue to meditate, your brain changes physically, a process known as neuroplasticity. This refers to the lifelong capacity of the brain to rewire itself in response to the stimulation of learning and experience.

Scientific research shows that a regular practice of mindfulness leads to the cerebral cortex (the outer layer of the brain) becoming thicker in three key areas (the prefrontal cortex
– the part that controls attention; the insula – the part used for tuning into others and ourselves; and the hippocampus – the part that regulates your visual and spatial memory). These changes help to explain how meditation improves our ability to pay attention, gain greater self-awareness and experience more empathy for others.

It also helps to reduce the reactivity of the amygdala - the part of the brain responsible for memory of emotions, especially fear and the triggering of the fight-flight-freeze stress response. Mindfulness meditation is a proven way of activating the parasympathetic nervous system, or ‘rest and digest’ system as it’s more commonly known. This reduces the harmful levels of stress hormones released into the body when the fight- flight-freeze response is activated. Engaging this part of the nervous system is a reliable way of regulating the impact of negative stress.

Research shows that regular mindfulness meditation improves your concentration, decision-making and working memory. It reduces stress, lowers your heart rate and blood pressure, strengthens the immune system, and reduces anxiety and depression. It can even reduce hyperactivity in ADHD sufferers and help to alleviate insomnia.  Mindfulness encourages emotional stability by enabling you to observe your feelings rather than getting caught up in the drama of how you perceive life to be. It boosts self-esteem and teaches you to appreciate daily life as it unfolds, in all its majesty and travesty.