Mindfulness encompasses much more than meditating on a Yoga mat. While you may begin your practice that way, you’ll soon find that your self-awareness and introspection skills build as you navigate daily life. In fact, you can use your approach to spur necessary changes and develop a healthier lifestyle overall.
If you’re wondering exactly how to use your new or established mindfulness practice to transform your life for the better, here are four mindfulness tips that’ll help you form new habits.
Learn about how you think
How do humans grow, learn, change and develop? Mindfulness can make you aware of the processes that are going on inside you all the time. It may even help you heal from mental illness by taming and reframing your maladaptive thoughts.
For example, your default mode network refers to interconnected brain areas that come alive when you aren’t actively engaged in a specific task, such as when you’re daydreaming. Researchers suspect that this network could relate to mental disorders as diverse as schizophrenia and depression, as it governs how you perceive others and process the sensory information that’s bombarding you daily. Evidence suggests that mindfulness meditation can calm activity in your default mode network, thereby easing symptoms of mental illness.
Likewise, mindfulness makes you aware of when your brain switches from active learning to actions that are taken by habit. Research in habit-forming shows a pattern in the striatum, which is a part of the basal ganglia. When you first learn a new routine, the neurons in this area will fire continually to help you remember the actions. However, clusters of neurons will only come alive at the beginning and end after the actions have become habitual.
Think about stopping at a red light. You don’t consciously think, “That means stop. I guess I should hit the brake.” Your brain simply orders your foot to perform the correct action.
Understanding how you think will help you see the benefits of your new habit(s), and it’ll also serve as ongoing encouragement. You can feel it in your body when an action becomes habitual—and mindful awareness of this change may prompt you to celebrate!
Reframe discouraging thoughts
Mindfulness can also help you form new habits by making you aware of discouraging thoughts as they occur. You can then take immediate action to reframe these ideas in a more positive light that encourages you to keep moving forward.
Perhaps you could imagine a little neutral scientist in your head as you sit in mindfulness meditation. During this type of exercise, the goal is to clear the mind and focus only on the breath, but thoughts will naturally intrude. When they do, imagine your little scientist writing each one down on their pad before turning to a new, blank page. This exercise will teach you to observe your thoughts and experience them without the emotional attachment that typically accompanies rumination.
Likewise, you’ll notice yourself observing your thoughts off your mat if you practice often enough. The folks at Alcoholics Anonymous often refer to “stinking thinking”—those ideas that you use to justify having a drink after pledging to remain sober.
You might think, “It’s been a very long day and one beverage won’t hurt me,” but you’ll know differently if you’ve mindfully observed the effects of alcohol on your mood and have recognized that it only triggers worse anxiety. You can then reframe your thought as, “There are much better ways to relieve stress,” and choose one of them.
Breathe through it
Practicing Yoga teaches you how to remain in uncomfortable poses using your breath. Why does this work? Techniques such as two-to-one and boxed breathing impact your central nervous system, which will help you balance your sympathetic and parasympathetic functions, along with easing your stress and even your perception of pain.
Deep breathing can also help you form new habits when you use it to interrupt triggers that threaten to derail you from your goal. For instance, the dreaded “hangxiety” can make you feel so edgy that you might believe only another drink can take the edge off your panic—even though you know the rebound effect will create an even worse case of the nerves. Regulating your breath can help quell your uneasy feelings and take the edge off your urge to drink.
Sometimes, reaching your goals can inspire feelings of panic that derail your progress towards other goals and make you flee to old, maladaptive behaviors. As an example, sometimes sexual abuse survivors who lose weight start attracting more romantic attention. Unwanted flirtations can trigger feelings of terror and helplessness, which can make a survivor binge-eat so they once again feel unattractive and “safe.”
As an alternative, deep breathing can create the necessary pause that will allow you to connect your behaviour with your uncomfortable emotions. Once you identify, “I’m eating to stuff down my discomfort with looking attractive to others,” you can actively choose how you want to respond to that trigger.
Do you want to derail your weight loss progress and suffer the adverse health effects associated with obesity, or find another way to feel safer—like enrolling in a martial arts class? The better option will become clear once you question yourself.
Cultivate patience by observing nature
People often give up on new habits before they fully form because they get frustrated by what they view as a lack of progress. They might take one fatty meal as an excuse to toss their commitment to healthier eating in the trash, instead of simply thinking, “Well, that was a heavy lunch. I guess I’ll have a light dinner.”
Your mind can be your best friend on your way to your goal, or your worst enemy. It may help to envision your consciousness as another person as you build awareness of your thought processes. What is your self-talk like? Is that how you would expect your loved ones to talk to you?
You can mindfully cultivate patience as you form new habits by observing nature. Look at how spring transitions to summer, fall and then winter. You may have the occasional snowfall in May and June or a heat wave in November, but Mother Earth doesn’t let these minor aberrations derail her from her ultimate goal—and so, each season follows the previous one in turn.
Spend a few moments watching ants going about their business. They may hit roadblocks, but they inevitably regroup and get back to work. What can our miniature cousins teach you about perseverance?
Instead of giving up when you face a challenge, take to your mat or a comfortable sitting position outdoors. Mindfully reflect on what’s standing in your way and make some room for silence. The answer may emerge from within, or you might find a new way of looking at the situation with more acceptance and patience for the slow but sure process of change.
Much more than a casual practice
Mindfulness can be so much more than a mental health or spiritual practice that you tune in to a few times a week. Those who engage in regular mindfulness work could find that they come to pay more attention to both their inner and outer worlds when going about their daily tasks.
Fortunately, this level of awareness will allow you to use the above mindfulness tips to help you form new habits that’ll make your life better. With intent and perseverance, you can create the life of your dreams!
Medical disclaimer: This page is for educational and informational purposes only and may not be construed as medical advice. The information is not intended to replace medical advice offered by physicians. Please refer to the full text of our medical disclaimer.
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