4 simple mindfulness practices to stay calm and reduce stress

How often have you actually found yourself completely immersed in the present moment? Your mind is constantly juggling between regrets/memories from the past or worries about the future. It’s time that you hit pause and look around. However, mindfulness helps calm down anxious feelings by bringing you back to reality. Anxiety starts surfacing when you find yourself stuck in a whirlpool of thoughts about the future that feels threatening. By learning how to practice mindfulness, you can learn to acknowledge your irritations, worries, difficult emotions and thoughts by rationalising them.

HealthShots got in touch with Dr Jyoti Kapoor, Senior Psychiatrist, and Founder, Manasthali, to understand how to practice mindfulness tricks for anxiety.

Try out these mindfulness tricks to deal with anxiety!

Dr Kapoor says, “Mindfulness is all about paying attention to daily life and the things we typically rush through. It’s about slowing down the pace of your thoughts in your mind by coming back to the body. You already have all the tools you need to practice mindfulness.”

1. Do a guided meditation or mindfulness practice

Practising meditation is the best way to calm down your thoughts and get all your focus or attention to the present. You may go ahead to practice the most basic mediation where the entire focus is on observing the movement of breath.
However, the ones who struggle with keeping their mind and thoughts steady can practice any guided or mantra meditation to learn to control their mind and thoughts.

Another easy and effective mindfulness technique is to play the “look-point-name-game”. In this game, you look around yourself and pinpoint the objects, and name them as you notice them. This will immediately bring a drop in your anxiety levels.

2. Try doodling or colouring

Remember, as children the back of our notebooks was filled with our doodles. It might sound funny, but this is yet again another very effective mindfulness technique. You can scribble around and doodle on sheets by playing with pens and colors to let your creative juices flow. You may also pick painting as your new hobby and let the artist inside if you show up. Painting is a slow and intricate process that soothes the mind and soul. The slow and delicate movements of the hand keep the body and mind occupied in doing something fruitful.

Also read: Mindfulness can help you deal with negative emotions and physical pain

3. Go for a walk

It’s easy to sit stagnant in one place and just engage your mind in overthinking. Shake yourself out of that immobility and get yourself moving. You may go for a walk around the block and spend some time in nature. They say nature is the best healer. Taking a slow walk and witnessing the things going around makes you mindful and calm.

4. Mindfulness eating

If you are someone who suffers from anxiety, chances are that you might miss out on eating mindfully and enjoying every bit of it. So, before you partake in any food being served, try this:

• Take a few deep breaths before eating
• Feel the sensations of hunger in your body
• Eat as per your hunger
• Eat peacefully by slowing down, and breathing as deeply as you can.