Mindfulness Skills: Informal Practice for Each Day

Practice Your Present Moment without Even Trying

By Bluestone Psychiatric Services

In the middle of the night, I was rocking my 5-month old son back to sleep. He was a fickle sleeper and my techniques were honed just right for his comfort. Then all of a sudden my nose had an itch. It was either maneuvering all my appendages to scratch my nose; definitely wake him up OR deal with the itch in another way. I remember practicing informal mindfulness earlier that day with a client. This is where you look for opportunities in your daily life to be mindful of one’s experience. Instead of alleviating the discomfort, I tuned in to the itch and experienced it. The itch sensation peaked and then subsided.

Mindfulness Principles to Try

Here are some solid principles for practicing and learning good mindfulness:

• Tune in to the moment-to-moment details of your current experience – as the old saying goes “be here now”.
• Set aside past memories of the experience or future expectations – the mind starts to conjure solutions to take you away your discomfort
• Notice your body sensations and physical response to the experience – use these five senses to connect to what is happening now
• Allow distractions to pass on by without engaging them – the less you entertain them, the shorter they will stay
• Reduce  your judgment of the experience – criticizing yourself will only further your discomfort

Back to my story . . .  I initially thought myself silly to be practicing mindfulness in this way. But I realized each day a plethora of discomforts cross our paths. Some are mundane and benign like my itch, but others more significant like sadness or a migraine. Practicing on the “little stuff” can help train our brains to tolerate the big stuff.

Informal mindfulness is a great way to start retraining how you think and experience your day. It helps to remove judgment, interpretation, and historical experiences that may predispose you to a negative outcome.

My Anxiety is Far Greater Than Mindfulness “Tricks”

If you notice your anxiety is intense and attempting mindfulness skills is not an option yet, combine your therapy with psychiatric medication. Our psychiatric team is highly motivated to collaborate with you. They will help you find the medicine that unlocks your ability to practice these skills.

Mindfulness vs the Future

One thing I noticed as I tried to be mindful about my itch, is my mind’s wandering into the not-so-far distant future. “Will I wake him up?”, “What if he doesn’t sleep tonight?”, “What if by the time he is a 1 year old, I am still up all night soothing him?”. Thus the worry fest plants its seed. As I remained non-judgmental and tuned in to the experience, those worry thoughts appeared out of place and faded into the background.

For more help on how to incorporate informal mindfulness into your daily routine, spend some time with a Bluestone counselor whom would love to walk alongside you in the process. Plus, add a Bluestone Psychiatric Medicine provider to alleviate the more intense symptoms.

 

Additional content provided by David A. Morris, LCSW