Stuck in your head? Busy mind? An over-thinker perhaps? Feeling stressed, anxious or overwhelmed? Worried about the future or ruminating about the past?
You can easily incorporate the following straightforward mindfulness practice into your daily routine. Using our five senses, we will cultivate present-moment awareness, become more embodied, and become more attuned to our internal and external environments:
- 5 things you can see – notice colours, shapes and textures
- 4 things you can touch – e.g. sensation of clothing, seating, feet on the floor, temperature, air on your skin
- 3 things you can hear – distant or near e.g. own breathing
- 2 things you can smell – e.g. food, freshly cut grass, plants, perfume, scented candle
- 1 thing you can taste – e.g. food or drink recently consumed
Reflective questions to consider
Grab a book or open an app to write down your thoughts.
1. How can I easily incorporate this into my day-to-day?
Even if you only take 30 seconds a day, it can help you build muscle memory and neural pathways and, with regular practice, become a habit over time.
2. In what ways will this benefit me as a consistent practice?
Consider well-being, relationships, productivity, etc. as a whole as you can.
3. Which of your senses do you prefer?
We often have stronger preferences for some senses over others e.g. are you more visual, auditory (sounds), kinaesthetic (movement / tactile), auditory digital (thinker) etc.?
4. Which senses could you develop further?
By developing under-utilised senses, we can add to the richness of our present-moment experience.
Give it a go and let me know how you get on.
My somatic and embodied coaching approach
Supporting clients to physically embody what they have learned is what I mean when I say “somatic coaching,” as opposed to just cognitively acquiring information.
It is one thing to comprehend something intellectually; however, in my work with numerous clients, I have found that putting this knowledge into practice produces long-term results. To put it another way, it becomes a part of you. This starts with conscious practice but becomes an unconscious habit or skill over time.
Mindfulness personal and professional tools
I have incorporated mindfulness practice into my coaching approach because I love it so much. Some of the personal and professional development tools I share with my clients can be seen in the following videos:
- 90 seconds grounding technique
- Building emotional intelligence, resilience and agility
As the second video above explains, another effective mindfulness practice is to name our feelings without judgment or attachment.
Although we do not have to act on our emotions, they can be useful information or data (such as our values, what is important to us, and when a boundary has been crossed).
In point of fact, taking a mindful pause between a stimulus and response or emotional trigger and reaction can be very helpful to avoid an automatic and unconscious response and instead consider how to respond (if at all).
I hope you found this article useful; if you have any questions, please contact me and let me know what resonated with you.
