Mindfulness: Exercises, Techniques, & How to Practice

What Is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness means remaining attentive and focused on the present moment.¹ Mindfulness is both a skill (techniques you can learn and develop) and a way of life (like an integral character trait) that allows you to experience yourself, others, and situations at face value rather than anxiously worrying about the future.² Mindfulness is focusing purposefully on the present moment with open awareness, allowing yourself to let go of evaluations so you can love yourself, others, and your life.

Many people feel stuck in near-constant worry, fear, rumination, depression, automatic negative thoughts, and problem-solving mode—mindfulness offers a break from these experiences.³ However, practicing mindfulness skills does not mean ignoring or avoiding problems. Instead, you observe and accept life, letting yourself ride the wild roller coaster of ups, downs, twists, and turns in a state of calm presence.

Mindfulness Vs. Meditation

Mindfulness and meditation are similar but are not identical practices. Both share the fundamental quality of calming and focusing the mind. However, meditation is the formal exercise of sitting quietly, turning your attention inward, and focusing on something specific. That something depends on the type of mediation.

For example, in loving-kindness meditation, you center on sending positive thoughts to others and yourself. While in transcendental meditation, you repeat a word, sound, or phrase for the duration of your experience.⁴ Mindfulness meditation means devoting your formal meditation to concentrating on the present moment and your experiences during the meditation.

Mindfulness can be a type of meditation but also exists independently as an informal and intentional experience. Mindfulness is using your senses to pull your wandering mind into the present so you can fully experience it. Mindfulness does not happen in a specific block of time but is an integral part of life.

Benefits of Mindfulness

Mindfulness changes how you approach problems to respond thoughtfully rather than reacting with negative thoughts and emotions. Racing thoughts, negative beliefs, regrets, or worries dissipate when your mind is full of the present moment and its sensory experiences.

Learning and practicing mindfulness allows you to take your life back from anxiety, stress, depression, and other mental health challenges. A mind living in the present lives with purpose and intentionality to create a life aligned with your values.⁵

Below are the benefits of mindfulness:^2,5,6,7

• Decreased anxiety: Redirecting yourself to the present when stuck in worries about the past or future teaches your brain what to pay attention to. Anxieties shrink in importance when you do not focus on them.
• Reduced depression: Depression often involves automatic, distorting, and all-consuming negative thoughts. Depression symptoms begin to ease when you replace rumination with non-judgemental observations about the present moment.
• Self-acceptance: Practicing mindfulness involves observing yourself neutrally in each moment as it unfolds. Your self-confidence boosts as you drop harsh labels and negative judgments.
• Emotional and behavioral regulation: Mindfulness grounds you in the present moment and helps you see things neutrally, encouraging you to pause and choose responses thoughtfully rather than reacting strongly or irrationally.
• Increased attention span: You boost your ability to focus and sustain attention as you train your mind to concentrate on sensations or experiences in the present moment.
• Better sleep: Mindfulness increases the length and quality of sleep, something that in and of itself improves mental and physical health.
• Reduction in pain: Chronic pain can demand your full attention, further reducing your pain. Mindfulness helps turn your attention elsewhere to help you experience positive sensations.
• Improved immune system function: Practicing mindfulness exercises can boost the immune system to keep you healthy.

Types of Mindfulness Exercises

Mindfulness does not happen naturally because the human mind is prone to wandering and judgment. Mindfulness is a skill that can be developed with purpose, patience, and practice. Different mindfulness practices can help you do just that, including meditation, breathing, and visualization techniques.

Mindfulness techniques can be formal or informal. Formal exercises involve devoting time every day to practicing mindfulness. You can also use mindfulness informally, integrating the experience into your daily activities by catching your wandering mind and returning attention to your present moment.

Below are common mindfulness exercises to practice:

Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness meditation involves focusing on experiencing meditation in the present. This increases awareness of the present moment and allows you to simply observe sensations, thoughts, or emotions without judging them. You recognize and name what you notice before returning your attention to something neutral, like your breath.²

Mindful Breathing

Mindful breathing means turning your complete attention to the act and experience of breathing. Close your eyes (if you’re comfortable doing so) and inhale and exhale slowly and deeply. Feel the air entering and leaving your body, listen to its sounds, and notice how your body expands and contracts. When you catch your mind wandering, gently return your attention to your breath.

Visualization

Visualization is another mindfulness technique that turns your attention away from distressing situations, such as panic attacks, PTSD flashbacks, or unpleasant situations. Here, you use mindfulness to focus on a single object in your immediate surroundings, hold onto it in your mind, and study every detail. Or, you call to mind and vividly imagine a pleasing scene, experiencing the sights, sounds, smells, and textures. When your attention wanders, return to the visualization over and over again.

Journaling

Practicing mindfulness can also include tangible exercises like journaling. Mindful journaling removes thoughts from your head as they occur as you write them down in a notebook devoted to your practice. You can then review these notes to shift your perspective. Alternatively, you can pick a topic, such as a favorite experience from your day, and describe your own thoughts, emotions, and actions. Journaling is mindful because you focus on the accompanying experience and sensations.

Mindful Movement

Mindfulness movement exercises encourage you to focus on sensations in your body and around you. This involves tuning into yourself while you move in a way that feels good. For example, taking a mindful walk is a great way to nurture your mind and body to boost mental and physical health.

Mindfulness Techniques to Use at Home

The idea behind all mindfulness practices is the same. Use your senses to tune in to what you are doing. Whether you dedicate time every day or practice throughout your day (or both), you’ll gradually become more focused and able to accept each moment without judgment.

Begin each of these with a slow, deep breath. Continue to breathe slowly and deeply as you engage in these exercises, as this type of breathing calms your sympathetic nervous system (the one responsible for your fight-or-flight stress response) and activates your parasympathetic nervous system (the calming one dubbed “rest-and-digest”).⁸

Five Senses Practice (Simply Notice)

This exercise can help you center yourself and reset when you’re particularly stressed or anxious. Begin to get in the habit of pausing now and then to concentrate on the tangible things around you.

To practice noticing your five senses:

• Identify five (more or less as you desire) things you can see with your eyes.
• Note five sounds you can hear with your ears.
• Discover five scents you can smell with your nose.
• Experience five textures you can feel with your fingertips.
• Savor five unique tastes (this works at home or during a meal but isn’t a great idea on the bus)

Mindful Eating

Too often, we eat on the run, shoveling in food as we rush from one activity. Or, we grab our phones or turn on the TV if we do sit down. Mindful eating allows us to slow down and savor the food and experience. Eating this way is calming and offers health benefits such as weight loss, blood sugar control, and improved cardiovascular health.⁹ You are more likely to choose healthy foods, savor, and stop eating when you’re full when you eat with intention.

Below are tips for mindful eating:

• Eliminate distractions such as electronics, books, etc.
• Sit comfortably at your table
• Choose your food wisely, selecting something that nourishes you
• Notice and appreciate the appearance of your food, the colors, and the arrangement on your plate
• Breathe in the smells
• Eat slowly, savoring one bite at a time and noticing the taste and feel of your food
• Allow yourself to feel grateful for the food, your setting, and the experience

Yoga or Tai Chi

In Sanskrit, yoga means union, the connection of mind and body. In practices like yoga or tai chi, you move your body in precise ways as you concentrate on the sensations in your body. Concentration focuses and quiets the mind to allow balance and flow. These mindfulness practices help build physical and psychological flexibility on and off the mat. You don’t have to be able to twist yourself into a pretzel or stand on your head to do these mindful movement practices. Find classes for all levels in your community or online.

Body Scan

With body scan mindfulness exercises, you tune in to one body part at a time. This is helpful when stressed or if you live with chronic health conditions. You can sit in a chair or lie on a couch, bed, or floor. Alternatively, you can do this anytime to release tension and be present with yourself (you can use the time spent standing in line to improve your mental and physical health).

Below are steps for practicing body scan mindfulness techniques:

• Turn your attention to your feet, one at a time. Curl your toes and hold them for a few seconds before releasing them. Notice how it feels to let go of the tension.
• Move to your calves one at a time. Flex them, hold, and release, again noticing how this feels.
• Progress this way gradually until you reach your head. Clench and release your jaw and your forehead muscles.
• End by squeezing your eyes shut and then slowly opening them, choosing one point on which to focus mindfully and recenter yourself.

Grateful Appreciation

In this mindfulness practice, you appreciate yourself, someone else, or an aspect of your life. This is not about forcing feelings or thinking that everything is wonderful. Instead, focus on one person or experience you are grateful for instead of problems and grumbles.

Below are tips for practicing grateful appreciation:

• Call to mind a recent experience, someone you care about, or something about yourself (this isn’t egotistical or narcissistic but is part of developing a healthy sense of yourself rather than constantly finding fault with things you do).
• Spend a few moments recalling related sights, sounds, smells, actions, and emotions and allowing yourself to feel grateful for this person or experience.
• Record your thoughts in a gratitude journal.
• Consider writing this person a letter expressing your thoughts and feelings.

Mindful Chores

Daily tasks are rich with mindfulness opportunities. Getting lost in mundane chores is easy, and many accompanying thoughts are negative or stressful. Use a task as an opportunity to be mindful. Concentrate fully on what you are doing—what you see, hear, feel, smell, or taste. Develop the habit of noticing and fully engaging in every moment of your life.

The Waiting Game

We spend a great deal of time waiting. We wait in long lines, at red lights, or in slowly moving traffic. Our minds often wander into worries and negative thoughts when we wait. Additionally, we may get stressed or angry, and our whole mind and body become agitated. The next time you find yourself waiting, engage in one of these mindfulness exercises. Challenge yourself to stay calm, focused, and present no matter how long you wait. Return to your mindfulness exercise when you grow impatient or your mind wanders.

Color Breathing

Color breathing involves associating colors with emotions. You can imagine the unwanted emotion you’re experiencing, such as anxiety or depression, as one color, and the emotion you wish to experience, like calmness or relaxation, as another color. As you breathe in, you imagine the color of your desired emotion entering your body and filling you with that emotion, and when you breathe out, you imagine the color of the unwanted emotional exiting your body.

Mindfulness Used in Therapy

Anyone can use mindfulness practices, and exercises do not require professional guidance. However, several formal mental health therapies incorporate mindfulness because of its many benefits, such as mindfulness-based stress reduction, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, and mindfulness-based pain management.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

MBSR is a formal, research-supported program practiced in group settings, such as hospitals, schools, and clinics. This therapy typically lasts eight weeks and uses mindfulness meditation, yoga, and education to reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and/or pain.¹⁰

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)

MBCT combines cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness practices. Participants in MBC learn CBT techniques to challenge and change negative thoughts and mindfulness exercises, such as meditation and breath control, to shift attention and calm emotions. Research has shown that MBCT is helpful for depression, anxiety disorders, and addictions.¹¹

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Mindfulness is one of the major components of acceptance and commitment therapy. In ACT, people work with a therapist to learn and apply the principles of acceptance, defusion (separating themselves from their thoughts and emotions), mindfulness, and self-observation to define their values and create action plans to live accordingly.⁵ Mindfulness assists clients in learning and applying the other aspects of this therapeutic approach.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

DBT is a therapeutic approach that helps people gain skills to deal with emotional problems and unhelpful behaviors that interfere with their lives.¹² Mindfulness exercises help people shift their focus to break out of negative thoughts and feelings that keep them stuck.

Mindfulness-Based Pain Management

While not a formal treatment program or therapy, mindfulness-based pain management has been shown to help people with chronic pain improve the quality of their lives. Mindfulness does not directly treat underlying causes of pain but can reduce subjective experiences of pain. One study showed practicing mindfulness reduces activity in the parts of the brain that manage pain messaging.¹³

Final Thoughts

Mindfulness can be an aspect of numerous religious and spiritual traditions but also exists independently. Mindfulness can be secular, practiced outside any other belief system or ritual. These exercises have persisted throughout time, spread across the globe, and been embraced because they work. Mindfulness has the potential to help you step out of your mind and into your life. You can learn the skills, practice them, and live calmly, responding to challenges and problems rather than reacting to them or being led by them. Mindfulness puts you in control of yourself and your life.