How Much Effort Does It Actually Take To Live Mindfully?

The researcher Jon Kabat-Zinn writes the following about mindfulness; "The point is to pause in our experience long enough to let the present moment sink in; long enough to actually feel the present moment, to see it in its fullness, to hold it in awareness, and thereby come to know and understand it better."

How much effort does it actually take to live mindfully?
At what times during the day do you pause to think about someone or notice how you are feeling?
Noticing what you are experiencing and incorporating this awareness into all of your interactions begins when you become the observer of your life.

The hard way or the easy way?
It takes only a small amount of time to do something mindfully as it does to act without thinking. The consequences though can be very different as many people have regrettably found out the hard way.

We make conscious choices every day when it is related to an event that we deem to be important to us. Equally, not making a choice when you have the opportunity to make one is also a choice.

Learning to live in the moment begins with catching yourself in the moment. This instance of awareness includes observing what's occurring internally as well as physically.

Ask yourself the following questions:
What am I noticing right now? What's happening in my vicinity? What am I drawn to?
What am I feeling right now? What emotions and physical sensations are flowing through me?
What am I thinking right now? How do I want to react?

With practice, awareness increases and you quickly pick up what the body is feeling and what thoughts are flowing through the mind.

All this occurs in real time and gives you the ability to make appropriate choices that positively impact your present, your future, and the ability to sustain lasting change.

Affirmations

As always, choose affirmations that feel appropriate to you. Feel free to create an affirmation that's suitable to you by asking yourself the following question:
What do I want to ….?

This will help you to create affirmations that assert your purpose and therefore have special meaning to you.
It is important that the words you use are your own or that they feel comfortable to you.
Once you become familiar with using an affirmation, you can create your own ones, based on your specific needs on a day-to-day basis using language and content to better fit what is happening in your own life.

I have the freedom to find out who I am

I forgive who I was in the past

I accept what is happening and trust that all will be well

I know that I am a loving person and that I am loved

Why Do Happy People Do Better In Life?

Why do happy people do better in life?

A 2009 study from the University of Pittsburgh looked at the role of positive emotions and discovered that positivity was a powerful source of growth and change, predicting desirable life outcomes in many areas including resilience, coping resources, as well as life satisfaction. The researchers investigated why positive emotions were so significant and concluded that optimistic feelings actually helped people build lasting resources.

Encouragingly, the researchers found that negative emotions had weak or null effects and did not interfere with the benefits of positive emotions. So, if you were to experience positive emotions during one part of your day and negative emotions during another, their effects did not cancel each other out. The report highlighted this effect using the acute experience of bereavement as an example. Many people who were grieving reported some episodes of positive emotions amid their elevated levels of negative emotions, resulting in better psychological outcomes.

Change in resilience mediated the relationship between positive emotions and increased life satisfaction, suggesting that happy people became more satisfied not simply because they felt better but because they developed resources for living well.

What was also interesting was that it was not enough to simply express gratitude or appreciate your life in a general way, it was the “in-the-moment” lived experiences of joy and interest, rather than the more general positive evaluations, that started the process of exploring, learning, connecting, and building new resources and ultimately formed the link between happiness and desirable life outcomes.

A mindful, happy moment!

Savoring The Moment

Increase your own life satisfaction by fostering behavior that triggers a cascade effect of positive emotions, increases resilience, while providing you with tools that give you a constructive and optimistic outlook on life.
Savor the moment. Awareness of wonders, such as a rainbow after a storm, the giggle of a child, the sweet flavor and juiciness of a summer fruit all contribute to memories that not only make you feel good but you can later draw on during challenging moments to sustain you. Pay closer attention to what is happening around you. Think about creating happy memories from good situations, however small and transitory they may seem, and notice how quickly they build up.

Something Else To Celebrate

Altruism, empathy and acts of kindness not only make you feel good, but they make a difference in the lives of others. Your actions don’t have to be major ones; they can be as simple as a smile, opening a door, to something larger such as organizing a food drive or driving someone to and from the hospital. It’s the cumulative effect that makes you feel good about yourself and life in general while enhancing your connectivity to the world. As an added bonus, you will see your kindness reciprocated.

Isn’t that something else to celebrate?

Affirmation
Create a positive feedback loop and boost your life satisfaction through consciously monitoring and choosing your thoughts and actions. When you are aware of the power of your intention and how it shapes yourself and the world around you, you recognize how uncontrolled emotions can keep you tied down in the very place you are struggling to get away from.

The past has no hold over me
I am in control of my thoughts and emotions
I make conscious decisions to follow one path or another
My life is brimming with bright choices and overflowing with joy and happiness.

Be Kind to Yourself Too!

Integrating loving-kindness into your everyday life can provide quick results that benefit yourself, and others.
It's often easier to extend a helping hand or a thoughtful word to a friend or even a complete stranger, but what goes on in your head? What recurring thoughts do you have that you don't want and how can you get rid of them?

Loving-kindness directed to friends, family, yourself, and even strangers fosters self-care and improves connections while extinguishing doubts, anxieties, and even anger.

You can learn to express loving/kind thoughts and actions but it is also important to permit yourself to receive love/kindness in return.

A new perspective
This open-hearted way of living permeates all aspects of your life and interactions with the world around you; from what you eat, from your loving respect of animals, to caring about the environment, and embracing non-violence.

When you interact with another person, or even a group, your intention will show via your thoughts through the language that you choose to use, to your tone of voice. Building and living your life upon the strong foundation of love and kindness provides a steady stepping-stone to increase your well-being, happiness, and self-compassion.

When you catch yourself in the throes of another self-depricating thought, replace it with one or all of the following affirmations instead.

Meditation
The following meditation helps to bring positive changes to the area of your heart and can be repeated as often as you wish throughout the day.

When seated in your meditation pose you can focus on the phrases by repeating them.

If concentration is challenging, you may like to try repeating them when walking and synchronize them with each step that you take.

In addition, one or more of the phrases can be written down and placed where you can see them often.

With continued use, you clear away the clutter of thoughts and emotions that you do not want and act instead from a clear place of kindness that was within you all along.

May I be safe

May I be happy

May I be well

May I be at peace