Meditation In Daily Life | 7 Ways For Haters (Not Boring…Promise!)

Don’t roll your eyes just yet! For many people, meditation is a tedious and boring exercise which makes them feel impatient. They perceive it as an utter waste of time. This article is not meant to convince you otherwise.

It’s intended to help you benefit from meditation practice by incorporating mindfulness meditation in your daily life. After all, who said that you have to follow the conventional way of meditation to benefit from it?

The fact that you are reading this article shows that you are aware that it’s good for you or that you are curious about it. Yet you can’t get yourself to sit your ass down and be with your thoughts.

It’s kind of like working out or eating fruits and vegetables. People are aware that it’s good for their health, but not everyone follows a healthy balanced diet or a workout routine.

7 Ways to start meditating in your daily life

#1. Waking up mindfully

Before your start rushing to get to work or get on with your never ending to-do list, be aware of the miracle that’s happening within you. Your body is constantly working to keep you up and running. Thank your body for doing the work for you and keeping you alive without you having to think about it!

Set your alarm 5 minutes earlier and take those 5 minutes to just sit with yourself and pay attention to how you’re feeling. How does your body feel? Do you feel stiff? Are you still tired from the previous day? Did you have a good sleep? Or were you tossing and turning in bed thinking about everything else but sleep?

Being aware of how you are feeling allows you to get to know yourself better. And you will be able to nourish yourself better. Listen to your body and see what it needs to feel better. Start each and every day with a purpose and intention. Life force energy is circulating within you. Use it wisely!

#2. Meditating through dance

Sitting down meditation or repeating a mantra is not the only way you can calm your mind and achieve heightened levels of consciousness.

Meditating through movement is ideal for people who have difficulty expressing their emotions and being assertive. Dancing is a powerful way that allows you to express your emotions and flow with your bodily sensations. So how do you meditate while dancing? Don’t just jump into it and move in a way that makes you ‘look good’… dance in a way that makes you FEEL GOOD.

• Start by listening to the music and take 3 deep breaths.
• Pay attention to how your body responds.
• Allow yourself to move freely and let your emotions flow through you.

Paying attention to how your body responds to music strengthens the mind-body connection. And by allowing your emotions to move you and flow through you, you are honoring your own emotions. It’s much more enjoyable than trying to tell your body how it should move.

Related: Life Force Energy

#3. Mindful workouts

Meditation is usually associated with stillness. But stillness of the mind can be achieved even during physical exercise. If working out like going for a run or hitting the gym is part of your daily routine, you can also practice mindful meditation during your workout on a daily basis.

When you’re working out, focus your attention on what you’re doing. If you’re running, instead of thinking of what you’re going to do afterwards, or what you did yesterday, be present in the run. Focus on the energy in your body, and the life force within you that’s fueling your body to move.

If you’re at the gym, pay attention to the muscles you’re targeting. Feel the strength within you enabling you to push yourself to do those extra reps. This also prevents injury and allows you to hone in on your exercise more easily. Focusing your attention on a particular muscle when working out promotes its activation and growth.

Related: Is Meditation A Sin?

#4. Walking mindfully

Going for a mindful walk is a great way to incorporate meditation in daily life. Most often, we either go for a walk with someone, or we get lost in an internal conversation. Try going for a solo walk, it doesn’t need to be a super long one.

You can try this anywhere, but in nature it’s even more powerful and effective. When you are walking, pay attention to your surroundings. Observe the beautiful nature surrounding you. Or pay attention to buildings in your city. Try observing without judgement. Be attentive for the sounds in your environment, or see if you can pick up on any particular smell.

Use your senses and pay attention to them while walking. We interact with our environment through our senses. This will help you stay present and attentive. Otherwise, you easily get distracted in your mental clutter, and you end up missing out on so many things. Many people get to the end of their life and realize that they have missed out on so many moments just because they were not mentally present.

Related: How To Stop The Negative Chatter In Your Head

#5. Mindful daily cooking

For those of you who enjoy cooking, this will be easy. Those of you who perceive cooking as a means to an end, mindful cooking can change how you feel about it!

If you don’t like cooking, you probably perceive it as a chore that takes up a lot of your time. But in reality, it’s a way of nourishing yourself and fueling your body with energy. So how can you meditate on a daily basis while cooking?

Focus on what you are doing step by step instead of repeating to yourself how unpleasant it is to cook. Play around with your creativity and use your sense of taste to experiment with ingredients. Enjoy the pleasant smell of the food you are cooking. When you are present while cooking, a sense of appreciation emerges for the food that you have.

The next time you cook a meal for yourself, see it as an act of self-love. If you’re cooking for someone, do it with love and care. And instead of rushing to get it off your to-do list, be present, and enjoy each and every moment of it. You will start perceiving cooking as a form of art. Use your creative energy to create a piece of artwork… it makes the whole process more enjoyable!

Related: How Does Self-Awareness Help Boost Your Confidence?

#6. Mindful eating

This is one of the easiest ways to incorporate mindfulness in daily life. If you have a tendency of binge-eating, being mindful while you’re eating can really help you out! It’s not a common habit for people to be fully present when they’re eating. It’s something we take for granted.

We forget to be grateful for the abundant amount of food we have available to us at any time of the day. Mindfulness meditation while you’re eating means focusing explicitly on your meal. Enjoying each and every moment of it, and feeling grateful for your tasty meal.

Try it out and the next time you sit down to eat your food, be present and pay attention to what you’re eating. Take yourself out on a solo-date and treat yourself with a nice dinner. Don’t distract yourself with your phone while you’re eating. Be with yourself and indulge!

#7. Meditating daily with music

This is one of my favorite ways to meditate. When we listen to music, we often get lost in thinking either about a memory, or imagining our future. To meditate with music, be present and focus on the sounds and the vibrations. Your mind will wonder off after a while and this is completely natural. The brain is biologically designed to think…

As soon as you notice that you are drifting away in thoughts, take deep breaths and focus your attention back to the music. Pay close attention to the sound, the rhythm, and any bodily sensations or emotions that you might feel as a response to the music.

Why should I incorporate meditation in my daily life?

Any form of meditation helps you become more mindful, present, and focused. These three states of being are overlooked and one can easily miss how beneficial it is to live your life through these specific states.

When you’re mindful and present, you are more aware of what’s going on around you and within you. We don’t realize that for most of our waking time, we’re lost in thought, wondering about God knows what.

Incorporating meditation in every day life also strengthens your willpower, concentration skills and self-discipline. It lowers cortisol levels (stress hormone), promotes good health, increases creativity, and helps you maintain a positive outlook on life.

As you can see there are many different forms of meditations you can try. Experiment with this practice and see what type of meditation suits you best!

Signs you need meditation in your daily life:

The opposite of mindfulness is mindlessness. Mindlessness gives rise to habitual, automatic and repetitive behavior. It manifests as compulsive and obsessive thinking patterns.

Compulsive and obsessive thoughts directly impact an individual’s mental health, stress levels, listening skills, accident risks, and more. Research shows that mindfulness influences workplace health and safety, and prevents human error issues.

Examples of mindlessness:

• Did you ever lose track of what someone was saying because your mind drifted away during a conversation or a work meeting?
• How many times were you driving to a place, and once you arrived at the destination you couldn’t remember how you got there?
• Have you ever lost track of whether you’ve already washed your hair with shampoo, or which body part you’ve already washed?

Don’t worry you’re not alone as this happens to the best of us! Incorporating mindfulness meditation in daily life will help you become more present in whatever you are doing. It strengthens your concentration skills and you notice that you become more focused on your tasks. So let’s have a look at the benefits of incorporating meditation in your daily routine.

Summing up the benefits of meditation in daily life

• Helps you manage stress and lowers anxiety
• Increased feelings of joy
• Strengthen your intuition
• Calms the mind and body
• Improves decision making
• Increases concentration skills
• Promotes creativity and inspiration
• Enhances self-awareness and self-regulation

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