Mindfulness practices are the art of focusing your awareness on the present moment while acknowledging and accepting your feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations. In simple terms, mindfulness means paying full attention to something. Being mindful is not about rushing or multitasking because when you’re mindful, you take your time.

Think of all the times you allowed something or someone to get under your skin and found yourself acting in a way you later regret. You don’t have to be stuck in rage, frustration, guilt, or anxiety patterns. By exploring these mindfulness practices and incorporating them into your healthy lifestyle, you can bring more balance to your life.

Set Healthy Boundaries

Setting boundaries protect your physical, mental, and emotional well-being because it separates you from whatever is not serving you. Healthy boundaries allow you to determine what you can handle and what is acceptable. Think of it as mental self-care for your healthy lifestyle journey. People that know how to set healthy boundaries sleep better, experience less burnout, have healthier relationships and less stress.

How to Set Healthy Boundaries

• Be honest with yourself and do some self-assessment
• Be honest with others and straightforward about your boundaries
• Identify when boundaries are being crossed, it’s important to speak up in a firm way.
• Follow through with honoring your boundaries – Remember that the boundary is for your wellbeing. Even if the recipient is offended at first, typically they will come around after being given time to process. [1]

Acknowledge your Emotions

Being mindful of your emotions and allowing yourself to be accepting means that you allow your feelings to be what they are without judging them as right or wrong, or trying to change them. [2] It is about being aware of your emotions and accepting that these feelings exist without trying to suppress or push them away. Feeling sad, scared, or ashamed is uncomfortable because we label those emotions bad or wrong. Mindfulness is about letting go of the labels and accepting your emotional experiences, and not placing judgment and ignoring them.

Mindful Practices for Emotional Acceptance include:

• Learn to witness your thoughts without judgment; just observe.
• Take away expectations and learn how to react to people, and events, when it doesn’t go as expected and catches you off guard.
• Deal with your resentment, and recognize whom or what you feel resentment towards, why you feel that resentment, the negative ways it has affected your life and what you learned from the situation.
• Allow yourself to accept yourself and how you feel in this moment and know that your emotions will change.

Practice Mindfulness When Eating

Mindful eating is a technique used to improve eating habits because it has been shown to help promote weight loss. Nowadays, eating has become a mindless task because of all the distractions that shift your attention. Learning how to “single-task” while eating incorporates something you have to do anyway with a meaningful mindfulness practice.

Mindful Eating Practices include:

• Pause and breathe before eating to allow yourself to transition into mealtime.
• Taking your time while you eat and properly chew your food
• Recognizing your emotions before eating. Are you just bored, thirsty, anxious, or actually hungry?
• Listening to your body and eating only until you are satisfied and not full.
• Using multiple senses, including visuals, aromas, and flavors
• Remember you are eating to maintain a healthy lifestyle
• Giving gratitude for the food you have

Incorporating mindful eating can help you identify triggers around food and stop the on-and-off dieting, and unhealthy habits brought on by emotional eating. When your behaviors are acknowledged, your stress is reduced, and you have a greater chance of long-term success.

Set Aside Time for some Self-Care

When trying to practice self-care, you don’t need to spend several uninterrupted hours daily on yourself. Self-care is the daily process of being aware of and attending to one’s physiological and emotional needs.[3]. Mindfulness practices include practicing self-acceptance, self-understanding, and self-care. Practicing means scheduling it like scheduling anything else important in your life.

Mindful Self-care practices include:

• Go to bed earlier – Don’t underestimate the power of a good night’s restful sleep.
• Wake up earlier – While sleep is important, if you are finding that you are not getting enough “me time,” you may benefit from waking up a few minutes earlier to have a quiet moment to yourself.
• Make time to exercise daily – Exercise is the best way to show your body you care about it.
• Do things that make you laugh.

Incorporate Meditation into your Routine

Images from MRI scans show that meditation can positively affect your brain and mental health. The relaxation response from meditation helps lower blood pressure and improve your heart rate. Meditation teaches mindfulness and how to be in the moment.

Breathe Chile Meditation Tips:

• Find a calm, quiet, uncluttered space.
• Establish a routine and stick to it
• Get Comfortable
• And remember to Breathe, Chile

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References:

1. How to Set Mindful Boundaries | Mastermind Meditate – Dallas.
2. Lindsay EK, Creswell JD. Mindfulness, acceptance, and emotion regulation: Perspectives from Monitor and Acceptance Theory (MAT). 
3. Mindful Self-Care -Mindful Wellness Assessment- University at Buffalo.
4. Set Boundaries, Find Peace, by, Nedra Glover Tawwab