The Benefits of including Mindfulness in your Health Routine
Contributing post
Health and Wellbeing are a big part of our lives. In order to function to our best, we need to be healthy. However, it can be difficult to find the best techniques that really enrich you physically, and mentally. Mindfulness techniques really help you to unlock that mental side of exercise and wellbeing, as well as keeping your physical health in tip-top shape!
What Mindful Techniques Can You Include?
There are many different ways in which you can include mindfulness. From breathing exercises to really taking in your surroundings. There are so many different mindfulness techniques that you can adopt, and really refine to what you want to get out of it.
Mental Health also affects physical health, so the mind cannot be ignored. It is shown to be effective that if you practice mindfulness techniques at the same time as physical exercise the results are faster and more noticeable. Without regular maintenance and work on making sure the brain is a-ok, then the body will suffer the consequences, no matter how hard you push yourself at the gym! Try, refine and adapt these tips to your needs, then they will really make an impact on your overall health! Let’s dive into them;
Practice Breathing Techniques
This is one of the main methods of mindfulness that you can intertwine into the physical exercise that you do. They are really simple and really accessible to anyone who may want to use them. You can get hold of breathing exercises, or courses really easily, either through videos online, or through mobile mindfulness apps such as Headspace, or Calm. These are really useful as they relax your body as you exercise.
Another amazing benefit of breathing exercises is that it allows you to slow down and really take in the workout. Many of us rush to the gym after work and grab the nearest machine and work really hard for a couple of hours, which is great! But you are not really taking in the workout, really feeling the change and the energy that your body is using to do that workout. So, take some time, incorporate breathing into your norming routine, and you will see a major difference in the quality and the satisfaction after your workout.
Using Your Senses When you Exercise
This is another great tip to get the most of the workout you do already, but adding another element of mindfulness into the mix. An example of how you could use this method in your normal routine is your morning run in the park. Are you playing music through your headphones? Are you just focussed on the end goal of when you finish or where the next bench is? That is perfectly normal, as we all have those same thoughts. But, image that same run, but you really turn into the noises around you. The morning birds tweeting in the trees. The wind blowing through the hanging branches of the trees around you, and the noise of the rhythmic thud and gravel noise when your feet touch the ground every couple seconds. Although it sounds really basic and simple, firstly, it is! But at the same time, you will find again like the breathing techniques, you will slow down and really take in your environment, and get so much more satisfaction from your workout.
Practice Yoga
Yoga can be a great way to mix both physical exercises with the power of mindfulness with one simple practice. Although it is not common knowledge, yoga is not just one fixed practice. There are multiple versions, like Hatha Yoga, and Vinyasa yoga. Both of them offer their own benefits and their own way of mixing mindfulness into a physiological method. So, hatha yoga vs vinyasa? That is a good question. It totally depends on what you are looking to get out of yoga. Both of these versions of the practice are based on different philosophies and laws of what the different moves
You would be surprised at how much yoga can help your body. It can stretch and make you more subtle. It will tone your muscles and also the atmosphere will make you and keep you relaxed, which is great for your mindfulness and mental wellbeing as well as your body!
Mindfulness Listening
This is a great method to use if you are doing group exercises, as this is something that can be enacted within a group. This method can really help calm the inner questions that can sometimes fill our minds. Listening allows you to fully channel your attention to who is speaking. The exercise is all about listening to the others in the group, dropping all the outside influences and inside thoughts to fully immerse yourself in listening to others.
As it is also a group exercise, doing it with your friends can make it an even more entertaining and enjoyable! If you are confused about what to do and how to incorporate this method into your everyday exercise, here are the steps to make it really work!
Ask your friends to delve into what is making them stressed currently? Then after that asked them one thing that they are really looking forward to!
Once everyone has finished thinking, then one by one asked everyone to delve into what they had thought about!
Then, encourage everyone to talk about what it feels to speak about these things, and also how it feels to speak about the stresses in their life to the group. Also, how does it feel to describe something positive in their lives to the group?
This next part is all about their feelings and thoughts. What are the different body sensations you are feeling when speaking and talking to the group?
Then, once you have finished that you can break into small groups and discuss!
Obviously this last exercise is not an everyday one, but it is good to do now and then as it gets you involved with close friends or possibly family, and helps you relax and unwind!