The Art Of Mindful Living: 5 Benefits You’ll Notice When You Finally Slow Down
Slowing down isn't a luxury; it's the secret to a better life.
Keshaun Slevinsky | Unsplash Mindfulness plays a huge role when it comes to living our best life in the present moment. Each moment of our lives is an opportunity to learn something valuable about ourselves.
But instead, we often take our time for granted and waste it on unproductive thoughts. We must remind ourselves that it’s this present moment that truly matters. If we value our lives, we won’t let any moment go by without living it as truthfully and authentically as we can.
Mindfulness keeps us present and aware. It’s an elevated awareness that provides us a way to experience an expansiveness that feels like we’re breathing along with nature.
There’s no feeling of separateness. It reminds us that we’re here, in this moment of "now," and there’s no other moment than this one. Having a daily mindfulness practice can help sustain your present-moment awareness.
Here are 5 benefits of mindfulness you’ll notice when you finally slow down:
1. Mindfulness connects you to your authentic self
Often, when you’re caught up going from one moment to the next, you’re doing what you think you’re supposed to do, but feeling dissatisfied doing it. Take time to go inward and connect with your authentic self. Otherwise, you’ll live your life superficially, concerned only with who you’re projecting out to the world, knowing it doesn’t ring true.
Research shows that mindfulness enables an increase in authentic functioning by helping you become more aware of and better able to regulate yourself, eventually connecting you to your true self. Mindful people are better able to recognize and select goals that align with their authentic selves, leading to greater psychological well-being.
2. Mindfulness connects you to a sense of wholeness
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When you allow yourself to stop your busyness and devote time to connecting to your authentic self, you experience a sense of non-separation, wholeness, and completeness. Becoming aware of yourself as a spiritual being helps you recognize that which is worthy, divine, and holy within.
The more people engage in mindful self-awareness, the more they experience their actions as wholehearted and authentic, creating a deep alignment between their inner values and outward behavior, research has shown. In nursing, self-transcendence is understood as an awareness of one's wholeness in person-environment connections, particularly when life's fragmentation threatens well-being.
3. Mindfulness quiets your inner critic.
When you practice mindfulness, you’ll stop being a harsh self-critic and become a constructive advisor instead. Your inner talk that begins with "I can’t" or "I’ll never" quiets because the authentic self knows its own strengths and weaknesses without defining them as inadequate. With mindfulness, you let go of self-criticism and awaken to acceptance and peace.
Mindfulness promotes present-moment awareness and acceptance, which disrupts cycles of self-criticism and emotional reactivity. Studies show that brain activity during meditation results in less self-judgment, depression, and anxiety, and reduces rumination. Mindfulness meditation has been found to directly cause enhanced self-esteem by helping prevent people from getting consumed by self-critical thoughts and emotions
4. Mindfulness helps you process pain
While your past may contain unpleasant or painful memories, they’re a part of your life. How you process those painful experiences and what you continue to tell yourself about them makes the difference in how it affects your present self. You can create a "new memory in the present time" by navigating the present with neutrality and experiencing the past with acceptance.
This doesn’t deny or diminish your past, but creates a new impression that helps distance you from the unpleasant memory. Let yourself choose to stay present and not become influenced by hurtful memories that arise. Know that anything that’s happened to you in the past doesn’t define who you are in the present.
Studies reveal that mindfulness training enhances self-referential flexibility during memory recall, enabling a more balanced retrieval of emotional content while reducing emotional reactivity to painful autobiographical memories. Mindful acceptance allows you to represent painful experiences in a less aversive format, such as viewing them as temporary physical sensations rather than injurious stimuli, rendering the same difficult experience effectively less intense.
5. Mindfulness helps you return to your conscious homeland
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It reminds you that you’re here, in this moment of "now." All this moment asks of you is to feel love and acceptance towards yourself and others.
Mindfulness practice encourages openness, curiosity, and acceptance, helping us become less likely to avoid or suppress emotions since they're perceived as less threatening, studies have shown. When you stop resisting what is and instead meet this moment with gentle awareness, mindfulness promotes present-moment awareness and acceptance that interrupts cycles of self-criticism and emotional reactivity.
Use this mindfulness meditation to connect you to the present moment:
1. Find a quiet place to sit
Close your eyes. Feel yourself where you are right now. Note any sounds, thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations.
2. Invite yourself to be present in your meditation
Tell yourself it’s okay to let everything go. Focus your awareness on your breath. Take a few deep breaths in and out.
3. Focus
If your mind begins to wander at any time, bring your focus and awareness back to your breath, which will always bring you back to the present moment.
- Say silently, "I am in this moment of now."
- Say silently, "Now is all there is."
- Say silently, "I accept this moment I’m in."
Repeat this as many times as you wish. When you’re ready, slowly open your eyes. Be aware that you're still in the moment of "now" and that there’s no need to rush out of it.
Ora Nadrich is a certified life coach and mindfulness teacher. She's also the president of the Institute for Transformational Thinking and author of Live True: A Mindfulness Guide to Authenticity.
