30 Day Mindfulness Challenge – and Why You Should Try it Too
Are you in a similar situation?
I’ve been noticing how stressed I’ve been recently, and how it’s starting to affect multiple areas in my life.
Not only am I having a hard time concentrating, but many of my muscles are tight, and some exercise just isn’t enough to make it feel better.
Not only that, but even though I’m sleeping, when the alarm goes off I am still tired, and wish I could sleep more.
I’ve heard many times (and I’m sure you have too) that being mindful can help you have a better life.
I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, but I think I’ve finally found the motivation to do it.
Want to join me?
I’m going to do a month of mindfulness. Each week I’ll try a different method, and see how they work. Hopefully by the end of the month I’ll find at least one method that makes me feel better.
First, let’s talk about what mindfulness is. It’s such an abstract thing…but basically, it’s about being in the here and now. Instead of thinking about anything else…you’re in the present. You’re paying attention to the moment. You’re not worrying about the past or future. Yes, other thoughts may come and go, but you just let them go, and get back to being here and now.
If you’re still reading and wondering why on earth you want to be more mindful, you’re really going to be surprised at how much it can change your life. Are you ready for this?
- Mindfulness can actually change your brain. People who are mindful have more connections between positive areas such as attention and concentration, while areas associated with fear and stress appear to shrink. (Click on the link if you’re interested in more about the study.)
- You’ll be less stressed. (This is a good enough reason alone to try it!)
- You’ll be happier. Paying attention to the here and now means you won’t be upset about the past or worrying about the future.
- Since you’re less stressed and are happier overall, you’ll also find that your immune system is stronger.
- It isn’t easy to become more mindful, but by doing so you’ll notice that you can focus on things better, and remember things better as well.
- …and there are even more ways being mindful can help you!
In other words…just by being more mindful, you’ll have more of the good stuff in life, and less of the bad.
If that’s not a good enough reason to try it, I don’t know what is!
It also seems that every week there is a new study that comes out that says how being mindful or meditating (just one way to be mindful) can really help people. In fact, just last week there was a story on the news about how a school replaced detention with meditation, and the results were stunning.
So, for the next 4 weeks, I am going to try to be more mindful. While I’ll be trying 4 methods, I’ll talk about different ways you can be mindful with each method, since everyone is different and will like to do things in different ways.
Later on today, I will post about what I’m doing for the first week, and what I’ll do today.
Once the month is up, I will update this page to make it easy to see all of the different methods I tried, and how they worked.
I hope that at the end of the month, we’ll all have found new ways that we can be more mindful, and be less stressed. That’s the goal!
Enjoy,
