Mindful living is about living in the present moment without judging yourself or others.
For many people, mindful living is not natural. They tend to live on autopilot.
The problem with this is that autopilot mode often amps you up.
For example, you’re driving to your favorite nail salon to get a manicure. You’re excited about treating yourself.
But as you’re driving, you start thinking about the argument you had with your spouse three weeks ago. Before you know it, you’re all fired up again.
Instead of living in the current moment, you found yourself re-living the past.
This makes it hard to move on and can lead you to carrying around anger and other unpleasant emotions.
Mindful Living = Cultivating A Judgement Free Zone
Instead of reacting emotionally to situations like people do on autopilot, you can choose to focus on the current moment without letting your emotions take over.
You might see a distressing story on the news. You feel angry and sad. But instead of reaching for your phone to distract yourself, you stay in the moment. You acknowledge your emotions without judgement.
This frees you from losing a day of productivity because you were fixated on this one moment.
Mindful Living Makes You More Appreciative
During unenjoyable moments, like while you’re cleaning your home or compiling boring data for a client, it can be tempting to let your mind wander.
But part of mindful living is staying in the moment, even if that moment is unpleasant or uncomfortable.
However, just because you’re staying aware during an unpleasant moment, you don’t have to give into feelings of negativity. Instead, focus on giving thanks.
For example, you might say something like, “I’m grateful that I have enough clients to pay my bills” or “I’m blessed to have a home to clean.” Now, you’ve managed to stay in the moment without letting yourself focus on the negative.
Mindful Living Improves Your Mood
Few things can improve your mood quite like mindful living. Often, anxious thoughts are the result of worrying about the future, while sad thoughts are related to regretting the past.
Mindful living helps because it forces you to stop overthinking. Unless there’s something you can do to change your past, you have to accept what’s happened in your life.
If you do find that you’re frequently haunted by regrets or always worrying about tomorrow, it might be smart to speak to a trained counselor who can help you move on.
Mindful living is one simple way to improve your life. Try to spend a week focused on mindful living and see how your thoughts change.
Mindful living can change your life. Find out how in your free workbook.
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