Do you want to approach everyday life with more relaxation and mindfulness? Then we have three exercises for you that can easily be followed, even if you are a mindfulness beginner. By following our instructions, you can specifically reduce stress and thus feel more relaxed.

How do I become more mindful?

Mindfulness is full presence in the here and now. During mindfulness training, you train your consciousness to perceive and experience without judgement, to listen more consciously to yourself and to gradually slow down your everyday life by focusing on the present moment. Targeted exercises will help you with this.

When to practic mindfulness

Through mindfulness training, you learn to perceive yourself and your emotions more consciously and can sustainably strengthen things like concentration, positivity or empathy. This way, you can react more calmly in stressful situations or actively listen to your body afterwards. Here are some inspirations for starting your mindfulness training.

Body scan

Before you start, choose a surface that is neither too soft or too hard. A yoga or exercise mat is the perfect surface.

Lie down on the mat and stretch out your legs. Place your arms next to your body and support your head on a pillow.

If you find there are too many distractions in your environment you can close your eyes. Start with your left foot and then mentally feel each part of your body, working your way up to your head.

During this you can ask yourself questions such as: Is the body firmly on the floor? Is the muscle tense? How does the mat feel on the floor? You can be as detailed as you like. Once you have mentally scanned your body, you can open your eyes, take a few deep breaths and stretch out well so that you can feel the exercise throughout your body.

2. Positive Beliefs

Begin with deep and slow breathing. Try to concentrate only on breathing in and out, letting other thoughts pass gently by. How long you do this is entirely up to you. The key to starting out is not to force the rest.

To be able to focus on positive beliefs, you must first identify negative beliefs. These are often completely unconscious beliefs that our rational self would not express. Nevertheless, because they are deeply rooted in our subconscious, they influence our current thinking.

Take a deep look inside yourself. It could be things like “ I have to be perfect” or I have to meet your expectations”. Of course, these are statements that, if we really think about them, are not true at all. So the next step is to transform them into positive beliefs. Tip: When using positive beliefs try and avoid words like “no”, “not” or other negative expressions.

Beliefs are very individual: spend some time finding the ones you feel comfortable with. You can then incorporate your positive beliefs into your breathing exercise. To do this, close your eyes. Breathe in and out and let all tension go. As you breathe out, say one of your positive beliefs either out loud or in your head and feel it. How does it feel when you say it to yourself?

It is perfectly fine if you can’t believe them 100% at first. That takes time. Go at your own pace. If you do this exercise regularly, you will see how positive beliefs slowly but surely feel more beautiful and more realistic to you.

3. Activating the senses

With this exercise, you’ll be in the here and now in no time at all and can go about your day with a heightened awareness. If we dwell on the future or the past too often, it sometimes becomes overwhelming.

Seeing: What do you see? Look around the place where you are. How does the interplay of light and shadow work? Actively perceive things that you would not have noticed otherwise.
Listen: What do you hear? Is music playing in the background? Can you hear the heater or your refrigerator?
Smell: What do you smell? Are you currently perceiving a smell? If so, what do you associate it with? Is it new to you?
Taste: What do you taste? Do you still have the slight taste of coffee on your tongue? If you are eating something, try to actively perceive the individual aromas.
Feeling: What do you feel? Can you feel the clothes on your skin? Are you warm? Are you touching a certain object?

By being present in the present moment, we focus on the things that are important now. We perceive beautiful moments more intensively and have a clear view of what is happening right now. So before you start brooding and worrying too much about what could be, stick with what actually is and make the best of it.