For those who don't know about Mindfulness, it is understood as recognition and awareness. To be mindful is to center one's attention to experiences occurring in the moment. Mindfulness is an ancient practice, derived from the Buddhist Traditions. The sole purpose of being mindful is to be more in touch with YOURSELF. Today, this practice can fight pain, reduce stress, as well as improve overall health.

So how does one practice the art of mindfulness?

Simplicity

Stop multitasking so much! Bring all your attention to one activity instead of several. This can be a little overwhelming and personally I tend to get scatter brained. Try taking on one task without any distractions. This can help lead you to be more attentive and focused allowing for better concentration.

Control Your Thoughts

If you are anything like me, my mind is racing constantly. Flowing with ideas, events to remember, and unfortunately, some negative past experiences. Recently I learned that YOU can control your own thoughts!! Think about it this way, imagine that thought that just popped up in your head is a bubble. Now take a minute or two and acknowledge the bubble and recognize any feelings you might have. POP! Ok, that was just another passing thought. DO NOT DWELL!

Awareness

This is the heart of mindfulness. You want to be intuned and connected with yourself. Awareness of your thoughts, feelings, and how you feel physically. Engage your senses to be more aware of your surroundings, the people you're around or even situations you are in. Using all 5 of your senses, sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste can most definitely make you more aware of what's going on around you.

Relaxation

You need it! Decompress! Everyone takes on stress in different ways. The mind/body connection is real! From personal experience I can say that stress affects people in a physiological way. So, embrace those moments you have alone, take a few big, deep breaths and just RELAX. Even if it's just for a minute. It's very important for us to take a little time out of each day to clear our heads.

Lastly, don't be too hard on yourself. Everyone wants to live a happy life and most of us are searching for ways to make that happen. Let's be real...nobody really has life or themselves figured out. But by being mindful, you may slowly start to figure out WHO YOU ARE!