This month, we are focusing on one of the Five Ways to Wellbeing: Take Notice – also known as Be Mindful.
Mindfulness is a skill, and like all skills, it becomes easier with practice. If you have never tried mindfulness before, it may be helpful for you to start small and practice for a few minutes and gradually increase this time. Alternatively, you could begin with one mindful activity and slowly try other activity types.
Examples of activities that you can make mindful:
- Eating – acknowledge all the textures, tastes and smells as you eat
- Yoga – focus on the sensations in your body as you move
- Breathing – focus on your breath with an exercise like 7-11 breathing
- Colouring – keep your attention on the colours on the page, without judging whether the colouring is good or bad
- Meditation – observe your thoughts as they come to your mind, but try not to get caught up in them
Ways you can find out more about mindfulness:
- Enabling Services’ “A check in with our busy minds” session – as well as general wellbeing tips, we’ll be looking at easy ways to be mindful every day.
- Sport & Wellbeing’s Be Active Meditation session – Be Active aims to support you physically and mentally. Join their meditation session on University Mental Health Day!
- Action for Happiness’ Mindfulness Made Easy webinar – this includes simple techniques for how we can make mindfulness a natural part of our lives.
- Apps like Calm and Headspace allow you to practice mindfulness in your own time.
Read our last SUSSED post on mindfulness here.
