Here Are 2 Simple Applied Guidance for Mindfulness Tools

Easy-to-use tools requiring as few as 5 minutes of your time.

Photo by JM Lova on Unsplash

As part of my recently revamped podcast — Self-Awareness for Everyone — I’ve begun to include tools at the end of each episode to use for applied guidance for mindfulness.

These are the first two I shared.

How do I express mindfulness?

The simplest and easiest way to recognize mindfulness is to ask yourself direct questions.

We are constantly asking our friends, families, coworkers, even random strangers questions like these. Yet it is infrequent of us to direct these questions inwards. But asking these questions is applied mindfulness.

The first Applied Guidance for Mindfulness Tool: Questions

Ask yourself, preferably aloud, the following direct questions or questions like these:

· What am I thinking?

· What am I feeling?

· How am I feeling?

· Where is my mind?

· What am I thinking about?

· What am I focused on?

· What is my intention at this moment?

Photo by Tachina Lee on Unsplash

The second Applied Guidance for Mindfulness Tool: Deep Breathing

Meditation is not for everyone. But not everyone needs a concentrated mindfulness practice of mediation when a guided, 2-minute pause will do.

This entails a very simple exercise. You can do it anywhere at any time.

1. Seat yourself comfortably

2. Set a time with a chime or non-jarring alarm for 2 minutes and 5 seconds

3. Start the timer

4. Close your eyes

5. Take the deepest breath in that you can. Breathe from the diaphragm

6. Release the breath fully