Are you too busy chasing ‘better’ and ‘more’ that you sometimes lose yourself? Well, probably it is time to slow down, stop treating life as if it’s an emergency, relax, and start being mindful. Becoming more mindful simply means being aware of your thoughts, your actions, and your surroundings. It helps you eliminate habits that don’t work well for your physical and mental health. With that said, here are seven things you should stop doing to stay mindful.
01.Stop overworking yourself
Sometimes all we need to stay mindful is just slowing things down and taking a break. When you are overloaded with work and tasks, your mind and body are too busy, and you end up being stressed simply from a lack of downtime. Whether your schedule is clustered with unnecessary or stressful activities or not, the mere thought of completing them is stressful and draining enough. Learn to give yourself some breaks and cut out things that hinder you from attaining inner peace.
02.Have no expectations
If you practice a particular mindfulness practice, never have expectations or a specific outcome from the practice. Expectations can be hurtful and disappointing to the point of torturing your thoughts. If you only work with goals, you may have to continually deal with disappointments when things don’t go according to your expectations; this reduces your ability to be mindful.
03.Stop being overly critical about yourself.
Many people, particularly those struggling with depression, end up in that pit hole due to being too hard on themselves. They end up putting too much pressure and high expectations that they lose themselves. Humans are to error, and everyone has their own imperfections. When we learn that we cannot be perfect, we start being mindful of ourselves and learn to identify our strengths and weaknesses and embrace them.
04.Stop focusing on things that go wrong.
Things won’t always go the way you initially wanted them to go, and that’s okay. What you are always resisting will not just persist but grow in size. So, focus on things you are in control of or things that you can change and leave those you can’t. Yes. It is normal to be disappointed, but that shouldn’t stop you from being mindful and looking around your environment to find things that cheer you up or worthy things to focus on. Learn to find things that make you feel better and avoid stressors at all costs.
05.Stop reacting to what is going on around you
Sometimes what is going on in our lives could be too much that we feel as if we are sitting on a ball of fire. It can be a stressful moment for us but can quickly worsen if we react to these stressors. Stressful situations make us lose focus and mindfulness and entirely forget our surroundings and the people around us. For instance, it’s easy to lose yourself and shout at your boss for coming after you for something you did wrong if you are not mindful. If you feel stressed, take deep breaths, and start focusing on how you can do things differently.
06.Stop ignoring your environment
Spend more time with nature. Nature has a way of calming your thoughts and keeping your mind and spirit in good condition. Nature helps you see things clearly and logically. When things don’t always work out, take a walk in the park, around the mountain trail, or by the beach to cool off your thoughts.
07.Learn to concentrate on one thing at a time
With so much to look at, think, and do, most of us end up multitasking. For instance, it is almost normal to eat while watching a program on the TV or eat while scrolling on social media or reading a newspaper. We are so used to multitasking that we forget about being aware of our surroundings. Consider taking breaks in between tasks to allow your mind to think independently.
