In this busy world of ours, the mind is constantly pulled from pillar to post, scattering our thoughts and emotions and leaving us feeling stressed, highly-strung and at times quite anxious.
Most of us don’t have five minutes to sit down and relax, let alone 30 minutes or more for a meditation session.
But it is essential for our wellbeing to take a few minutes each day to cultivate mental spaciousness and achieve a positive mind-body balance.
So if you are a busy bee like me, you can use these simple mindfulness exercises to empty your mind and find some much-needed calm amidst the madness of your hectic day.
Why Mindfulness Exercises?
The cultivation of moment-by-moment awareness of our surrounding environment is a practice that helps us better cope with the difficult thoughts and feelings that cause us stress and anxiety in everyday life.
With regular practice of mindfulness exercises, rather than being led on auto-pilot by emotions influenced by negative past experiences and fears of future occurrences, we harness the ability to root the mind in the present moment and deal with life’s challenges in a clear-minded, calm, assertive way.
In turn, we develop a fully conscious mind-set that frees us from the imprisonment of unhelpful, self-limiting thought patterns, and enables us to be fully present to focus on positive emotions that increase compassion and understanding in ourselves and others.
In this post I'm going to cover 6 exercises that take very little effort and can be done pretty much anywhere at anytime:
- Mindful breathing
- Mindful observation
- Mindful awareness
- Mindful listening
- Mindful immersion
- Mindful appreciation
Let's get started…
6 Mindfulness Exercises You Can Try Today
1.Mindful Breathing
This exercise can be done standing up or sitting down, and pretty much anywhere at any time. If you can sit down in the meditation (lotus) position, that's great, if not, no worries.
Either way, all you have to do is be still and focus on your breath for just one minute.
- Start by breathing in and out slowly. One breath cycle should last for approximately 6 seconds.
- Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth, letting your breath flow effortlessly in and out of your body.
- Let go of your thoughts. Let go of things you have to do later today or pending projects that need your attention. Simply let thoughts rise and fall of their own accord and be at one with your breath.
- Purposefully watch your breath, focusing your sense of awareness on its pathway as it enters your body and fills you with life.
- Then watch with your awareness as it works work its way up and out of your mouth and its energy dissipates into the world.
If you are someone who thought they’d never be able to meditate, guess what? You are half way there already!
If you enjoyed one minute of this mind-calming exercise, why not try two or three?
2. Mindful Observation
This exercise is simple but incredibly powerful because it helps you notice and appreciate seemingly simple elements of your environment in a more profound way.
The exercise is designed to connect us with the beauty of the natural environment, something that is easily missed when we are rushing around in the car or hopping on and off trains on the way to work.
- Choose a natural object from within your immediate environment and focus on watching it for a minute or two. This could be a flower or an insect, or even the clouds or the moon.
- Don’t do anything except notice the thing you are looking at. Simply relax into watching for as long as your concentration allows.
- Look at this object as if you are seeing it for the first time.
- Visually explore every aspect of its formation, and allow yourself to be consumed by its presence.
- Allow yourself to connect with its energy and its purpose within the natural world.
3. Mindful Awareness
This exercise is designed to cultivate a heightened awareness and appreciation of simple daily tasks and the results they achieve.
Think of something that happens every day more than once; something you take for granted, like opening a door, for example.
At the very moment you touch the doorknob to open the door, stop for a moment and be mindful of where you are, how you feel in that moment and where the door will lead you.
Similarly, the moment you open your computer to start work, take a moment to appreciate the hands that enable this process and the brain that facilitates your understanding of how to use the computer.
These ‘touch point' cues don’t have to be physical ones.
For example: Each time you think a negative thought, you might choose to take a moment to stop, label the thought as unhelpful and release the negativity.
Or, perhaps each time you smell food, you take a moment to stop and appreciate how lucky you are to have good food to eat and share with your family and friends.
Choose a touch point that resonates with you today and, instead of going through your daily motions on autopilot, take occasional moments to stop and cultivate purposeful awareness of what you are doing and the blessings these actions brings to your life.
4. Mindful Listening
This exercise is designed to open your ears to sound in a non-judgmental way, and indeed to train your mind to be less swayed by the influence of past experiences and preconception.
So much of what we “feel” is influenced by past experience. For example, we may dislike a song because it reminds of us of a breakup or another period of life when things felt negative.
So the idea of this exercise is to listen to some music from a neutral standpoint, with a present awareness that is unhindered by preconception.
Select a piece of music you have never heard before. You may have something in your own collection that you have never listened to, or you might choose to turn the radio dial until something catches your ear.
- Close your eyes and put on your headphones.
- Try not to get drawn into judging the music by its genre, title or artist name before it has begun. Instead, ignore any labels and neutrally allow yourself to get lost in the journey of sound for the duration of the song.
- Allow yourself to explore every aspect of track. Even if the music isn’t to your liking at first, let go of your dislike and give your awareness full permission to climb inside the track and dance among the sound waves.
- Explore the song by listening to the dynamics of each instrument. Separate each sound in your mind and analyze each one by one.
- Hone in on the vocals: the sound of the voice, its range and tones. If there is more than one voice, separate them out as you did in step 4.
The idea is to listen intently, to become fully entwined with the composition without preconception or judgment of the genre, artist, lyrics or instrumentation. Don't think, hear.
5. Mindful Immersion
The intention of this exercise is to cultivate contentment in the moment and escape the persistent striving we find ourselves caught up in on a daily basis.
Rather than anxiously wanting to finish an everyday routine task in order to get on with doing something else, take that regular routine and fully experience it like never before.
For example: if you are cleaning your house, pay attention to every detail of the activity.
Rather than treat this as a regular chore, create an entirely new experience by noticing every aspect of your actions:
Feel and become the motion when sweeping the floor, sense the muscles you use when scrubbing the dishes, develop a more efficient way of wiping the windows clean.
The idea is to get creative and discover new experiences within a familiar routine task.
Instead of labouring through and constantly thinking about finishing the task, become aware of every step and fully immerse yourself in the progress. Take the activity beyond a routine by aligning yourself with it physically, mentally and spiritually.
Who knows, you might even enjoy the cleaning for once!
6. Mindful Appreciation
In this last exercise, all you have to do is notice 5 things in your day that usually go unappreciated.
These things can be objects or people; it’s up to you. Use a notepad to check off 5 by the end of the day.
The point of this exercise is to simply give thanks and appreciate the seemingly insignificant things in life, the things that support our existence but rarely get a second thought amidst our desire for bigger and better things.
For example: electricity powers your kettle, the postman delivers your mail, your clothes provide you warmth, your nose lets you smell the flowers in the park, your ears let you hear the birds in the tree by the bus stop, but…
- Do you know how these things/processes came to exist, or how they really work?
- Have you ever properly acknowledged how these things benefit your life and the lives of others?
- Have you ever thought about what life might be like without these things?
- Have you ever stopped to notice their finer, more intricate details?
- Have you ever sat down and thought about the relationships between these things and how together they play an interconnected role in the functioning of the earth?
Once you have identified your 5 things, make it your duty to find out everything you can about their creation and purpose to truly appreciate the way in which they support your life.
Would you like to download these exercises in PDF format?
+ Click here to download a PDF version
Want Help Changing Your Negative Daily Habits?
If you want to build healthy daily habits and routines to improve your physical, mental and emotional well-being, check out the Greatness App. It's really cool. I use it to optimize my sleep, improve organization and productivity, and make sure I spend quality time with my family and friends.
When you open up the app, you will be asked to answer a set of questions about your routine and what you'd like to improve. The app then designs a personalized plan to build habits that mindfully lead you towards the life you want to live.
The assessment and strategy behind it is all backed by behavioral science and designed by experts in the field. Honestly, I don't use many apps but I'm super-impressed by this one.
Sandy taylor says
Enjoyed this!
Joseph Burris II says
Sandy I also enjoyed reading this article and learning about some simple mindful exercises you can do while at your job to help assist you doing your job well.
Bob Fledgerson says
how?
Floyd Granderson says
I will continue to fill my life with breathing POSITIVITY into me. I will also consciously develop my purposeful awareness.
Alfred James says
That’s wonderful to hear.
Azura says
Hi,
Reading your blog in itself is a deep mindfulness practise!
Thank you..
Stillness,
Azura
Julie says
Hi I absolutely love your work. The way you break things down into understandable ways is great and the whole practice seems less overwhelming.
As a Buddhist, my work and philosophy is about learning and then checking things out for yourself to see if they fit. This is why I was attracted to your work. It’s the first time I’ve seen anyone encourage this in their article. I look forward to reading more of your articles.
If it’s ok with you, I’d like to make reference to your site by putting a link in my own.
Best wishes Julie
Alfred James says
Thank you Julie. Please feel free to reference my writing.
James Jensen says
Mindful breathing has been a life-saver for me. When I’m at work and something stressful happens, it is my little escape hatch. I can take some of those deep and glorious breaths, making sure to breath in through my nose and out through my mouth. It has an instant calming effect. It doesn’t eliminate my problems, but it fortifies me enough to face them head on.
Dhanalakshmi says
Nice to hear from you it’s really a useful thing. Thanks for sharing….👍
Naresh Shah says
Breathing by Nose and out by Mouth will be the best exercise.
Annie Collyer says
Great article. We need so much more mindfulness in the world to combat the upsets and limitations. I like your thought of just spending a few minutes with a flower! And taking the washing of dishes to be aware of how the water comes in, how it feels, look at how the light sparkles on the newly washed dish or glass, how my muscles work together to accomplish the task. Nice tip!
Naresh Shah says
Mindfulness on every act of our life will give us more encourangement and creating new ideas.
Eve says
This is great. Consise yet informative and applicable. Keep up the great work
Naresh Shah says
Very good article and very helpful in every walk of life including but not limiting only workplace.
Grace J. Thomas, LCDC says
Wonderful! I will be sharing this article with my adolescent group this afternoon. We have been discovering how to make personal peace in a chaotic world. My group of young adults have issues with addictions. Thank you for your article.
Alfred James says
Great! Let me know how it goes.
Naresh Shah says
Great thoughts.
Shannon Sadler says
Learning to pay attention to what I am paying attention to in each moment is slowly opening up a whole new way to experience life. This is possibly one of the most important things I’ve ever discovered in life.
Naresh Shah says
Very good. I definitely agree with this.
bert says
used to think it was a load of crap but happy to try anything to release a higher consciousness
Franca says
Ah..good to remind myself that most of the time, life is only about small moments!
Thank you!
Naresh Shah says
Collectively all moments some times gives great result and great success.I like it.
Rick says
All it takes is a choice. A choice to be free A choice to live the life we have inherited. To be part of what is around and within.
Naresh Shah says
Good but choice with mindfulness and thinking is always giving great result.
jadonnia b says
Loved this! The exercises are easily adaptable and adoptable by an anywhere, anytime opportunity to find one’s ‘center’!
Naresh Shah says
This is true. I agree with this.
Laura says
Nicely done! Excellent article. A great introduction to mindfulness or reminder, indeed. Doing these exercises can change one’s life for the (much) better!
Naresh Shah says
Change in the life is always better if it is with proper planning and better thought.
Larry says
I have found a handy mantra to repeat whenever some small irritation intrudes. “It doesn’t matter”. Or additionally, “It doesn’t matter, go fishing anyway”.
Alfred James says
I like it. “Life goes on”, right?
Naresh Shah says
That is true. Problem and irritation will always come in the life but we have to move on in the life by keeping mind clear and happy.
Fraser says
very good, helpful, thanks
Kristi e T. says
Thank you! I enjoyed these exercises a lot they made me feel really relaxed. ☺
Naresh Shah says
It is very good for the person who want to achieve something in the life. Read, think and adopt in the life.
Pinkey says
Mindfulness is the energy that helps us recognize the conditions of happiness that are already present in our lives. We don’t have to wait ten years to experience this happiness. It is present in every moment of our daily life.
Naresh Shah says
Exactly. Mindfulness and allertness/awarness is always great.
Estelle says
I read your article precisely because it was brief and concise, well done. Thank you.
Making the ordinary extraordinary is a real blessing, so I’ll be more mindful typing this note, enjoying blooming indoor plants while the world outside waits with bated breath for Spring , and so much more.
Amba says
Thank you very much. Much appreciated. It’s all about just being there and to live every moment.
Alfred James says
Absolutely, Amba.
Lalley says
I have recently experienced something called a Transicent global Amenesia (TGA) event, since then I am coming to terms with it and have found that reading the article is a great help.
I had enjoyed colouring for adults for some while and am keen to find new patterns to experiment with
Alfred James says
Sorry to hear that. I just had a read up on this and it seems there is a high rate of full recovery; I hope the exercises help with that. My wife also enjoys the coloring. You might find this post useful: https://www.pocketmindfulness.com/the-25-best-adult-coloring-books-ever/ as it has recommendations for good adult colouring books.
Naresh Shah says
I like that. Thank you.
Bob M says
This was a really helpful article. I especially love the mindful appreciation section. I do spend lots of time being grateful for good things and find that it really helps when I have lots of anxiety but it was hard to learn to meditate.
Meditation Claremont says
Wow! These 6 mindful exercises are amazing; many times I make plans to devote time to meditation but am not able to accomplish it. I like all these points since they are achievable with our work. I will follow them and hope it will get some good result this time for me.
Agnes says
I have been reading writings about meditations and living in the “here and now”. Yours is one of the simple, precise and easy to apply exercises in our day to day living. Thank you!
Alfred James says
Thank you Agnes. That’s great to hear.
Timeless says
Everything we did in the past dictates our present. Everything we do in the present dictates our future. Therefore, we can dictate a better future by being more present in the present.
Patsy says
I found this article on a facebook post for a clinic in my hometown. Love your thoughts on this and will be checking the library for your books. Thank you.
Alfred James says
Great to hear it is reaching different corners of the world!
Kim Land says
Hey Alfred,
great article! I like how detailed you describe the different exercises. What I like to do is focusing on the nergy inside my body. I become aware of my whole body as one big energy field. And than I watch how the energy is in constant movement. It becomes either more or less intense.
Shared your article. Keep up the good work!
Andrew grenicko says
Mindful breathing is helpful so you can take deep breathes so you can calm down when you are upset about something
Kim Land says
Hey Alfred,
that’s a great list! My favourite mindfulness exercise is becoming aware of the energy inside my own body. Than I notice if the frequency of my energy changes. After I do this for a while I feel very energetic and fresh. That’s why I like to start my day with this meditation.
Shared your article 🙂
Alfred James says
Thanks Kim!
Stella Mary says
Thank you for the helpful tips for all the busy bees. A very relevant post for this generation. We struggle to find some time for our own health and hence these mindfulness exercises are very helpful.
Alfred James says
Thank you. I’m glad you found them useful.
Han Mingqi says
Learning to pay attention to what I’m paying attention to in every moment will slowly open up a new way of experiencing life. This is probably one of the most important things I’ve discovered in my life.This is a good article and people can benefit from it.
LiuChenXu says
Thank you very much for the author’s interpretation, I understand the secret of reading, I feel moved, the meaning of reading is not only reading knowledge, but also more important is to experience the happiness, slowly grow, slowly progress, hone their confidence and willpower.
Alethea Walker says
Mindful Breathing technique I find to be relaxing and calming. Thanks!
Aruna says
Alfred Sir, thank you so much for relaxing and calming my mind. I really found myself smiling and feeling great after reading these exercises. And I found that one or two exercises I have done before even though I didn’t know it consciously. Once again thank you and I will make sure that I follow these
Kaz says
I’m so happy I found this wonderful gift from you on the internet. I was feeling a little overwhelmed and after only reading these 6 mindful exercises has calmed me. I have printed your generous gift and I intend passing it onto a friend. Your thoughtfulness will surly return tenfold. Thank you
Aimee Anastasia Johnson says
The six mindfulness activities calmed me and helped me focus on my work.
Alfred James says
That’s wonderful to hear Aimee.
Drew Griffiths says
I did a minute of mindful breathing after reading point 1 and feel much better. Thank you.
Mark Anthony Zarate says
enjoy this i feel better than before
Alfred James says
Brilliant!
Brianda Garcia says
This is great. I enjoyed doing it. It helped me a lot to clear my mind and de-stress. thanks for the post!
Alfred James says
You’re welcome Brianda. I’m glad it helped clear your mind. Have a great day,
Thomson says
Great article. I love the exercises. But I wanted to question the suggestion that mindfulness clears the mind. It doesn’t. I have been taught that it is impossible to ‘clear the mind’. All one can do is focus the mind. Thoughts will come and go but mindfulness is turning back to the chosen focus.
Alfred James says
Thank you, Thomson. Yes, it’s impossible to completely turn the mind off, but with regular meditation you can train yourself to induce stillness and empty the mind of the anxiety, fear, and desire that we regularly experience. By emptying the mind we tend to mean “being present”.
Liam says
This is going to help me a lot today. Thanks!
Alfred James says
Great to hear!
Ying says
Be mindful
Alfred James says
Indeed, Ying 🙂
Gul-e-Zehra says
okay I loved reading this one! I must say…