5 Easy Ways to Practice Mindfulness in Everyday Life
Time-proven methods to help you feel present, calm, and clear
![A woman holds a white cup of coffee to her lips. A woman holds a white cup of coffee to her lips.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F99ee742e-3f77-4afd-b6d6-23c2ddcb2d5d.heic)
Mindfulness was never meant to be practiced sitting on a cushion 24 hours a day. Even monks in a monastery tend to personal business and go about their chores.
Hence, the famous Zen saying:
“Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”
Whether you aim to reduce stress, anxiety, or depression or improve your focus and thus your productivity, scientifically verified benefits of mindfulness, the same axiom applies.
Mindfulness can be a part of every moment.
The more you incorporate mindfulness into the moments of your life, the more peaceful, relaxed, and spacious you’ll feel. I know this from my own experience as a long-time meditator and mindfulness teacher.
Here’s how to wake mindfulness up in everyday life.
Use the Senses
The senses are the channels through which we receive input almost continuously.
As soon as we perceive something, we tend to think about it. We tend to label it, consciously or subconsciously, as a “like” or “dislike.” Sometimes, we get swallowed up and thrown about by the emotional waves a perception can suddenly trigger.
All of that is called distraction—which means we’re distracted from the present moment. We relate to our thoughts and emotions about the moment and are no longer engaged in the actual direct experience of now itself.
When you use your senses to be more mindful, you turn what was once a distraction into a powerful vehicle that can deepen and strengthen awareness.
When you use your senses to be more mindful, you turn what was once a distraction into a powerful vehicle that can deepen and strengthen awareness.
Let’s explore how to use the senses one by one.
Whichever sense you engage, remember to relax and place your attention lightly upon the sense object.
Your goal is relaxed awareness. You’re not trying to wring mindfulness out of each sense experience—that would only make you tense.
Let’s start with sound.
1. Sound
Be aware of the sounds in your environment as they touch your ear.
Don’t focus on a specific sound, analyze sounds, or consider whether you like or dislike them.
If your mind wanders into thoughts about the sound or any others (and it will), bring your attention back to the sound as soon as you notice that you’ve wandered.
This approach can work equally well with birds chirping, a noisy lawnmower, and the din of rush hour traffic.
2. Physical Sensation
Rest your attention lightly on one area of the body—your chest, for example. Notice any sensations as they arise, change, and disappear.
Or, slowly scan your body from head to foot and observe whatever sensations emerge as you do. Don’t stop and fixate on a particular sensation. Continue to scan slowly and then begin again.
Alternatively, you could feel the sensation of your buttocks pressing against a chair, your feet on the floor, or an area of clothing touching your skin.
The awareness of physical sensations can heighten your experience of exercise, sex, and showers—whatever you experience over the course of a day.
3. Form
If your eyes are constantly glued to a screen, you’ve perfected the practice of form, but in a less-than-ideal way.
Mindfulness means conscious awareness balanced with a relaxed sense of ease. It’s not a form of tight over-concentration.
Choose an object in your environment and lightly rest your attention on it. It could be a flower, the sky, or a file cabinet—something you can see without straining your eyes.
Don’t examine the object in fine detail. Don’t penetrate it with your eyes. Just rest your attention on the form lightly with bare awareness.
Whenever your mind goes often on a tangent, gently bring it back to the form.
4. Smell
Tune into the faculty of smell when you enter a bakery, traverse the perfume aisle in a department store, or step into a flower shop.
The aroma of your morning coffee is an invitation to be mindful as well.
Consciously breathe in the aroma without trying to figure out the coffee blend. If your mind drifts to the day ahead, return to the aroma rising from your cup.
Intermix another sense by feeling the cup's warmth as you hold it in your hands or the heat of the drink’s steam nearing your face.
Cooking, with its many aromas, could become a wildly mindful affair.
5. Taste
People rush through meals. They talk to others or carry on an internal conversation with themselves. They make their to-do list or check their phones.
They might notice an exceptional taste experience for a flash, but they’re quickly on to something else.
Instead, give your full attention to every bite you eat
Here’s a complete tutorial on the art of mindfully eating a tangerine:
“What does it mean to eat a tangerine with awareness? When you are eating the tangerine, you are aware that you are eating the tangerine. You fully experience its lovely fragrance and sweet taste. When you peel the tangerine, you know that you are peeling the tangerine; when you remove a slice and put it in your mouth, you know that you are removing a slice and putting it in your mouth; when you experience the lovely fragrance and sweet taste of the tangerine, you are aware that you are experiencing the lovely fragrance and sweet taste of the tangerine. The tangerine Nandabala offered me had nine sections. I ate each morsel in awareness and saw how precious and wonderful it was.”—Thich Nhat Hanh in Old Path, White Clouds
Delightful, don’t you think?
Simple Tips on Sense-Based Mindfulness
Here are three ways you can use sense-based mindfulness:
Take one-minute breaks during the day and use a sense or two as described above. Sprinkle these mindfulness breaks across the day—one every hour or two. Use a gentle alarm on your watch or a timer on your device to remind you to pause and be mindful.
Keep your senses wide open from the moment you wake up. Practice continuously throughout the day. That’s a big ask, but experiment and see what you discover. You can still set a digital timer to ring each hour and note if you’ve become distracted.
Use sense objects like sounds or a form as a focus in seated mindfulness meditation sessions, too. Everyday mindfulness isn’t a replacement for formal sessions of mindfulness meditation. Formal practice can build the habit of mindfulness more effectively.
Whatever your approach, whenever you become distracted, bring your mind back to the sense you’ve selected as your focus. That’s how you build the strength and stability of mindfulness.
“How we pay attention to the present moment largely determines the character of our experience, and therefore, the quality of our lives.” — Sam Harris
Concluding Thoughts
You’ve been given 1440 minutes each day.
Once you subtract time devoted to sleep, do you want to be distracted for the remaining minutes or as mindfully as possible?
Living in distraction makes you more likely to feel stressed, strained, and spent.
When you live mindfully, you’re more likely to experience relaxation, insight, and a lightness of being bubbling up.
It’s up to you. Which would you prefer?
What do you think?
Do you practice mindfulness in daily life? Have you found it challenging, helpful, neither, or both? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments. I would be happy to answer your questions on mindfulness as well.
This article is part of my bi-weekly Friday Flashback series. The series features one of the best articles from my archive, revised and updated as needed. This piece was first published on Always Well Within.