How to practice Mindfulness, in 6 steps and tips

Mindfulness, or Full Attention, is a very useful tool that in recent decades has been applied to different types of psychological intervention.

In this article we will see several keys and tips on how to practice Mindfulness, taking advantage of the fact that once started it is very easy to maintain the progress and apply Mindfulness in many situations.

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What is Mindfulness?

Based on and inspired by Vipassana meditation, which has been practiced for millennia in regions of Asia, Mindfulness It is based on the management of attention and the physiological processes that accompany it..

Basically, it has been developed as a way to focus on the present and experience what is happening in that moment from a neutral perspective and not prone to judgement, so that the emotional involvement that keeps us attached to worries and obsessions is weakens.

Because of the logic of how Mindfulness works, it is a very good tool to combat stress and deal with pain, for example, although it also has other applications, some outside the clinical field.

How to practice Mindfulness on a daily basis

There is a wide variety of situations in which we can start practicing Mindfulness, since we do not There is only one basic way to do this, but several alternative versions of this have been developed. practice.

In these lines we will see what are the basic principles of the practice of Mindfulness, using an example of an exercise.

1. Find a quiet space

A good part of the practice of Mindfulness, especially during the first phases in which we have not yet mastered this tool well, is based on knowing how to choose environments that make it easier to carry out the procedure.

So, choose a place away from stimuli that can distract you. Especially without noise. If it is also in an environment where there is a lot of vegetation and nature, that will help you, since such a place. it will hardly remind us of those elements of daily life that can remind us of obligations, responsibilities and, in general, that can cause us stress.

2. sit up straight

Some people always practice Mindfulness sitting in the lotus position, in the manner of Buddhist monks, but this is not required. In any case, it is advisable to sit in a way that favors a straight back, since in this way we will not be bothered by unnecessary muscular tension.

• You may be interested in: "5 Mindfulness exercises to improve your emotional well-being

3. Perform controlled breathing

Breathing exercises can be a good help to start practicing Mindfulness, although when you have more practice this step will be dispensable.

Its function is double. On the one hand, deep, slow breaths help oxygenate the body and relax. On the other hand, it allows you to start focusing your attention on something concrete in a sustained way, something that will be very useful.

4. Focus on what happens in your body

First of all, close your eyes. In this phase, all we have to do is focus our attention on those small events that we can notice that occur in our body, one after the other and dedicating to each one of them, approximately, half a minute.

For example, direct your attention to a palpitation that you feel in your neck, or to the way in which the eyes move inside the sockets without these movements being voluntary, etc. Do this with about six items that you notice.

In this way we will be managing the attentional focus by directing it to simple stimuli, without anything else claiming our attention, no matter how important or urgent it might seem to us an hour ago.

5. widen the focus

In this phase, move from directing your focus of attention from bodily stimuli to life experiences of a more abstract nature. Think about them as a person not involved in those matters would.. Do not judge, do not value, just think about it describing, accepting that it is part of a reality.

Dedicate the time that corresponds to each fact or experience, according to the degree of importance that you have come to give it on previous occasions, according to how much it has come to obsess you, worry you, etc. This is the fundamental part of Mindfulness, since it helps us face experiences with broad repercussions in our lives.

6. Return to controlled breathing

In this phase, an end to the Mindfulness exercise is marked, in a ritualized way,

How to learn more about Mindfulness?

There are many ways to develop mindfulness-based practices. One of the most useful for therapists and psychologists in general, for example, is Mindfulness applied to the regulation of emotions.

For people interested in this kind of exercises, it is advisable to go to training programs such as the one taught by the Mensalus Institute of Barcelona: Mindfulness Training Program: M-PBI. This course, with an experiential format and an applied nature and based on individual and team work, trains students in the Psychological intervention with Mindfulness to reduce anxiety levels and to improve emotional management in a wide variety of situations. contexts. All this, commenting on and addressing the possible problems that usually appear in these cases depending on the situation: stress due to exams, relationship problems, mourning processes, etc.

For more information about this Mindfulness training initiative, click here and contact Mensalus.