Practising mindfulness and gratitude
When people think of mindfulness, it conjures up images of meditating behind a waterfall and words like “zen”, “ying and yang“ and “inner peace“. While these are the more extreme forms, there are simpler and equally effective ways of practising and achieving mindfulness. Let’s dive in and explore these what the terms “mindfulness” and “gratitude” really mean and how we can implement these virtues into our daily lives.
What is mindfulness and gratitude?
Mindfulness is best summed up by the folks at Mindful.org:
Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.
Gratitude is derived from the Latin word “gratus”, which means “pleasing” or “thankful”. Gratitude means being appreciative or thankful for something.
Why be more mindful?
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of us took many things for granted, myself included. Things like going to the movies, hanging out with friends and family or even going for a walk outside became almost non-existent once social distancing restrictions were put in place. 2020 was a difficult year for everyone. I was a half-orphan, unemployed away from my home country, living off my savings from my residency, trying to find a job and take care of my mother at the same time. It was rough. But I got through, as did many others. Now that COVID restrictions are starting to ease up in many countries around the world, including Papua New Guinea, life is starting to return to normal. Amidst the pandemic, changing my mindset really helped me pull through and become more resilient when I could have easily given up.
When you practise mindfulness, you become more aware and allow yourself to better assess your situation and emotions and allow yourself to act accordingly. The opposite of mindfulness is ignorance.
How to be mindful?
A simple way to practise mindfulness is depersonalise; don’t take things personally. For example, you are in line at the bank, you approach the counter and you notice that the bank teller is talking to you rudely. The basic human response is to think “this person is being a jerk” and (probably) mentally (or physically) insult them. However, in the same situation, a mindful person rationally thinks “this person probably is having a bad day because of something else beyond my control. I have nothing to do with the way they are feeling,” and they don’t take things personally. In a lot of these cases, things are not personal and there is no need to become upset.
Meditation is another useful method of achieving mindfulness. Meditation allows you to focus on yourself, your thoughts and your emotions. Meditation is easy to do and is not as complex as pop culture makes it out to be. Simply give yourself a few minutes of uninterrupted time where you sit in a quiet place or go for a peaceful walk. From his book Serve to Win, I’ll let World No. 1 professional tennis player Novak Djokovic explain how to meditate:
Start by taking five minutes (set the alarm on your phone, if that helps). Just sit quietly, focus on your breathing, on the moment, and on the physical sensations you’re feeling. Let your thoughts come. They do bounce around like crazy, let me tell you. But they’re supposed to. Your job is to let them come and go. Try to remember that the physical sensations you’re experiencing are real, but the thoughts in your head aren’t—they’re just made up. Your goal is to learn to separate the two.
Meditation and mindfulness allows you to be cognizant of your thoughts and feelings and not to let them affect your wellbeing. Anyone can practise mindfulness. It takes time to develop but it removes stress and helps us lead more happy and fulfilling lives.
How to practise gratitude?
How I like to practise gratitude is to use the “rule of three”. When I wake up in the morning, I tell myself how lucky I am to be alive and free, and three things that I’m thankful for. At the end of my day, when I’m about to go to bed, I take 5 - 10 minutes to write about my day in my journal. Things I did, my overall mood, three things I’m grateful for and three things I learnt that day. I challenge myself to write three unique things so that I don’t get lazy and just repeat the same things. This routine helps me start and end each day with a positive attitude, no matter what happened during the day.
I hope this post was helpful to you somehow. I hope you have a great day. Kuwa salama na kukuona karibuni hivi! (be safe and see you soon!).
