3 Mindfulness Activities to Reduce Anxiety and Increase Calmness

By
Chris L
-

Good emotional health is an indispensable part of maintaining a strong body and a fit mind. It’s very hard for your body to work properly if it is plagued by stress and anxiety. Here are three simple and easy mindfulness exercises that you can do any time, anywhere to reduce anxiety and keep you calm.

The Name Game

To help stop spiraling thoughts, look around you and name three things that you can see, two things that you can hear, and one sensation that you can feel. Doing this helps ground you in the here and now, and prevents your mind from racing from catastrophe to catastrophe. It increases your awareness of your body and your environment.

Deep Breathing

Our minds are inextricably tied to our breathing. When we are feeling anxious, our breathing tends to be shallow and constrained. If we stop shallow breathing and take deep breathes in to the count of four and out to the count of four, our minds will settle down and our bodies will relax. Deep breathing can give us a sense of unity with our environment wherever we are.

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𝙒𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙬𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙡, 𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙡, 𝙨𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙚, 𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙮, 𝙨𝙤𝙛𝙩, 𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧, 𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬, 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙡, 𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙛𝙡𝙤𝙬 𝙤𝙛 𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝… 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙩𝙮. (𝘽𝙧𝙖𝙝𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙨𝙝𝙞 𝙋𝙖𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙟𝙞) 🍀 I’ve learned a lot about #pranayama (Sanskrit: the extension of the life force or breath) lately. 🍀 According to the Patanjali, pranayama means controlled breathing which includes deep inhaling, exhaling and retention of breath. 🍀 Till now, I haven’t noticed the importance of breath and how it can affect (in a good or bad way) my body, my way of living, my emotions, my whole being. I wasn’t even aware of it when I was practicing any kind of physical activity. 🍀 Yoga really opened my eyes and made me realize how important it is to be aware of your breath and connect it with your mind and body. 🍀 Even for a few seconds. Baby steps as I like to say when learning something new. 🍀 My favourite pranayama practice till now is the Bumblebee breathing (or #brahmari in Sanskrit). It helps me get away of my #monkeymind, calming my anxiety. The humming sound and closing my eyes and my ears – these help me connect with my inner self. 🍀 After practicing for a couple of minutes, it’s like I’m coming from a retreat with me. 🍀 It helps me see a difficult situation from a different perspective. 🍀 QOTD: 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗮𝘃𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗮𝘆𝗮𝗺𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲? 🍀 PS: First, I was a little bit afraid to practice the #beebreathing and that because I’m a little bit claustrophobic, but it turned that it didn’t affect me at all, on the contrary.

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Stillness Exercise

Try focusing all of your attention on a word, thing, place, image, or the breath. As you do so, remain still and do this for as long as feels comfortable to you. It could be between five minutes to 20 minutes. If your mind wanders, gently turn it back to the object of attention. This promotes groundedness and stability.