“In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.”

Depak Chopra

Being mindful takes effort. Implementing mindfulness tools takes practice and time. Don’t become overwhelmed; as they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Investing in your health and wellbeing will have a significant on impact your happiness and overall satisfaction in life.

Recent studies show that meditation, involving mental rehearsal, guided
imagery and visualization can remarkably enhance your life. Incorporating mindfulness practices into your daily routines sharpens focus, enhances concentration and helps you to be rooted in the moment rather than being distracted by the past or future.

If you find your self mindlessly walking through life, maybe it is time to do something about it. We only have this one life to live and in the snap of the fingers it could all be over. Mindfulness helps us relish the everyday, the big and small moments. We can find beauty in menial tasks and chance meetings. Life becomes richer when you become mindful and aware of your environment and your impact on it.

How do you practice mindfulness or incorporate it into your life? Discover eight practical tools to be more in tune with the here and down.

1. Be Awake Are you aware of the present moment or do you find yourself distracted by the future or past thoughts? Tune into your environment. Give your attention to conversations and actions. 

2. Watch Urges/ Habits/ Ways of Being Take notice of any actions that are not pushing you to be better or not adding to your happiness and success.When we become reflective, we can act to create change that positively impacts our lives.

3. Be Aware of Expectations Creating unrealistic expectations cause undue suffering that can hinder performance. When we do not meet our own expectation or others fall short it negatively impacts our reaction, performance and general wellbeing. 

4. Acceptance of People, Experiences Relinquish control and find more peace and flow in your life. Choosing acceptance lessens unnecessary suffering and disappointment.

5. Become Okay with DiscomfortLife can be hard. Situations will arise that will challenge you and put you off your center. Being okay and navigating blunders, pitfalls, failures even will help you to stay balanced and take a more cool-minded approach to life’s challenges.

6. Watch Your Resistance Do you find yourself going out-of-the-way to ward off certain situations? When you feel your energy shift a wall can be created hindering you from moving forward or transitioning onward. 

7. Let Go of Control Embrace flow and accept disruption. Think about trying to control a friend, dictating rules on how he/ she should behave. Will your friends follow your words perfectly? Not likely. And more likely you will get frustrated that their actions are not according to your plan. This frustration is what we want to avoid. When we relinquish the need to control, life happens more organically. 

8. Be Compassionate to Yourself and Teammates We are our biggest critics and so often get caught up judging others. This is a bad habit that is normal in our society today. While it may be commonplace, it only serves to hold us and others back from greatness. Practice positive encouragement. Boost yourself up with reaffirming language like “you are a strong leader,” “you are beautiful and intelligent,” or “you have this” (when you feel shaky in a performance).