There are many tools available to assist your mental training in mindfulness that doesn’t require you to meditate. You can do almost anything and practice mindfulness. Just try to pay attention to your surroundings and how it activates your senses. Review the examples below to learn how to be mindful in everyday life:

• In the morning: When you wake up, pause and  notice your breathing. How are you feeling?
• Showering: Pay attention to the sensation of the water, the pressure of the flow, the scent of the soap, and the sound of the water as it trickles and lands, feel your feet on feet on the floor.
• Eating breakfast: Notice the process of eating as you bite the food, chew and swallow, taking note of the smell, texture, and flavor.
• Walking: For the most part of an activity of mindfulness, our bodies know what to do without any conscious instruction. But when you are intentionally practicing mindfulness, try to be aware of how your feet touch the ground, the sound they make, the feeling of your body moving through space.
• Driving: Usually this is an autopilot activity. Have you ever found yourself arriving at your destination and almost wondering how you got there? The next time you get into the car, try and notice how it feels when you sit, breath into any  areas of tension, take a moment to listen to the sounds as you drive. 

Sitting Practice

Sitting practice is a meditation exercise that comprises sitting upright with your spine straight in a relaxed posture with your eyes gently closed and concentrating on your breath. In general, a good starting point is to set aside 10 minutes per day. But, if you only have 5 minutes or even 2 minutes, rather do it then excuse yourself. Remember, you are building a daily habit so that it eventually becomes second nature.

As you grow in your ability to sit with your breath, you can slowly increase the amount of time you dedicate to it. As you become more proficient and able to remain calm and un-reactive, we can expand this sitting practice to allow ourselves to pay attention to body sensations in one area of the body at a time, then to include the body as a whole, and finally to become aware of and look at the thought process.

Body Scan Exercise

Its amazing how often we take for granted what our bodies are able to do … consciously and unconsciously. Walking, talking, eating, and digesting. We take these things for granted, until they are taken away from us due to injury or sickness. Only during dark times do we appreciate all it is that we have available to us because of our physical being. The body scan exercise allows you to put energy into experiencing your body rather than being judgmental about it. Read the steps below to learn how to perform this exercise:

1. If you are able to get into a lying position, if not, then just sit comfortably. Check into your breath and let it flow naturally without being forced.
2. When you are ready, start by paying attention to the toes of your left foot, checking in and being aware of just the toes of your left foot. Breathing into your toes.
3. Next, move slowly up your foot and leg, paying attention to the sensations as you go, being aware of your breath moving to each part as you rest your attention there. Check into your pelvis now. And then start with the toes on your right foot, slowly moving up your right leg with awareness, back to the pelvis. From there check in to your belly, your low back, breathing into the space. Then up to your chest and upper back, moving across to the shoulders. Now pay attention to the fingers of both hands, as they move up along each arm back to the shoulders. Now check into your neck and throat, your chin, jaw, cheeks, eyelids, and forehead, up the back of the head and the top of the head.
4. Now imagine a small hole at the top of your head, yes like a whale with a blowhole. Let your breathing move through the whole body from one end to the other. Start with breathing in through the hole in the top of your head and out through the toes, then in through the toes and out through the top of your head.
5. As you continue to do so, you might experience the sensation of your body dropping down or away, as if you’re melting into a transparent form, where all that remains in the breath flowing freely.
6. Allow yourself to sit in and enjoy the silence and stillness for a minute.
7. When you’re ready, slowly return to the body, sensing its form, feeling whole. Being to gently wriggle your fingers and toes.

The idea behind scanning your body is to feel each area, letting your mind linger there, just as you do with your breath in the sitting practice. Breathe into and out of each area and then let go as you move to the next area.

When doing the body scan exercise, you may find that as you let go of the sensation of an area of your body, the muscles in that area let go too. Tension may feel released as you become more mindful of those areas. If you become aware of some body stress but struggled to release it, don’t worry. Just linger there for a few breaths and feel or imagine that that tension is flowing out on each exhale and during the inhale, you are breathing in relaxation, energy, vitality and health.