Mindfulness is the psychological process of purposely bringing attention to our experiences, occurring in the present moment without judgment.

Mindfulness through Meditation or Quiet Time

It can be developed through the practice of meditation, or just spending time quietly in thought. Mindfulness is something you need if you are going to have peace in your life. It's something you should continue to work on.

Developing Mindfulness

Developing mindfulness, helps you to feel and understand your emotions. Self-care is the first step to creating mindfulness. Self-care means you’re working on being self-aware. Learning to align yourself with your internal thoughts, allow your feelings to come to the surface, then identify your goals, so that you can start working towards those, taking accountability for how you choose to reach them.

Practising Mindfulness

To practice mindfulness, you need to first learn to put in place effective listening techniques, so that you spend more time finding or reaching an understanding. Mindfulness, if used consistently, can have a domino effect in other areas of your life also. Staying grounded in the moment, it can also stop worry and anxiety.

How to Start

Start by placing your feet on the floor and take a moment to notice your surroundings, what is going on around you. Close your eyes and notice the quiet. Mindfulness is intuitive – perceiving mindfulness by intuition, without rational thought as a person, or the mind.

Mindfulness means Less Stress

Practising mindfulness means less stress, which means you’re more likely to cope with life’s challenges and therefore will make better decisions. It also means you’ll spend less time focusing on the things you know you have little to no control over. Being mindful means less rumination, increased work memory, so you may have greater cognitive ability.

If you fancy reading either of my books, you can grab paperback and Kindle copies on Amazon, or through the following link https://www.thecpdiary.com/my-books

Ilana Estelle is a mental health and wellbeing advocate who combines educational insight with her personal experience of living with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities. She holds diplomas in Counselling, Diet and Nutrition, Nutritional Therapy, Psychotherapy and Counselling, and Stress Management. Through her writing, Ilana supports others in navigating their emotional, mental, and physical health challenges. In addition to writing for The CP Diary, her work has appeared in healthy lifestyle magazines. Ilana is also the author of three books: Cerebral Palsy: A Story – Finding the Calm After the Storm, Spirituality, Healing and Me, and Survival: The Covid Years – Time for Change.

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2 comments on “How to Develop Mindfulness”

  1. Mindfulness has been extremely helpful to me since I went through the DBT classes.

    It was written mostly for people with BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) but it would be great for everyone, since it has a lot to do with life skills.

    My siblings and I weren't really allowed to do much of anything and forced to deal with surviving on our own. It was very difficult staying in the moment when we had to worry about things like where our next meal was going to come from.

    People complain about things like how tough they think their childhoods were, but right now I'm just trying to take things one day at a time and enjoy the life I have.

    1. Thanks Randy. Yes, I can see how it will have been difficult staying in the moment. It's also not fine, but it's not something you can change now.

      The only other option is to wallow in self-pity, or we can decide that we will make the necessary changes and move on. I think this is where mindfulness helps.

      Continuing to use 'mindfulness techniques' helps us separate the issues and live in the moment once we're through the other end.

      It doesn't take away the experience, but it gives us a different take on our experiences, so that we get to change the ending, even if we can't change the beginning or the middle bits.

      It's also doesn't get those others off the hook. A deed done, no matter the deed is noted. Your parents must reconcile their deeds.

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