Enrich's Guide to Mindfulness

We will be with you all the way, to aid in improving your health and reaching your wellness goals. However, we want to help you avoid the trap that we can all fall into from time to time. Getting caught up in all the possibilities can lead us to try to overhaul everything in our lives, all at once. This can create an unrealistic and demanding standard, which quickly becomes overwhelming. Instead of the motivation and inspiration we were hoping for, our resolutions become an added source of stress. It’s important that we focus on ourselves as individuals and put our wellbeing at the forefront.

‘New year, new me’ is a phrase that comes out of hibernation at this time of year. Immediately, the main idea for people is improvement. This usually comes in one of two main areas, improvement in nutrition and improvement in exercise. Whilst we do want to focus on those aspects of wellness, it’s also important to remind ourselves about an even more important aspect of wellness which is mindfulness. It is often overlooked, despite the amount of focus that is placed on it today. Mindfulness is a broad topic, but it covers lots of various values and principles.

There are many misconceptions to mindfulness – that it must involve some form of meditation in a room, incense, a flowing water machine, a gong or even closing your eyes and lying on a mat in a dark room. This is not the case.

Mindfulness is the practice of gently focusing your awareness on the present moment, being aware of where you are, what you are feeling, what you are doing, without being overly reactive or overwhelmed.

Mindfulness is one of our key pillars at Enrich. It encompasses so many different aspects of life and there are many ways in which it can be practiced. Mindfulness is all about being in the present – it is so easy to be caught up in the moment and worry about what we have done in the past or hyper focus and stress on what’s to come that sometimes we forget to live in the present.  Taking 10-20 minutes to practice mindfulness per day has been found to have significant benefits to overall wellness, enhancing brain function and overall physical and mental health. Like life, not everybody likes the same things and so you must find the right method for you. There are plenty of different ways it can be practiced, using words, movements or simply neither, such as, yoga, reading, hiking, fishing, gardening or even something as simple as journalling.

Journalling can be a great way to practice mindfulness. It allows you to express how you are feeling whilst keeping track of your mental health over a longer period. The great thing about journalling is its only for you, you can write about whatever you like. You can use it for reflection or use it to set goals for the day, week, month, year or even more, the possibilities are endless! Setting goals in both your personal and professional life are a great way to keep motivation up and boost your mental health. These goals do not have to be brand new either, you can focus on goals that maintain certain standards that you already have established in your life. You are already doing more than you give yourself credit for so there is no point insetting unrealistic standards for yourself and then wanting to give up. Journalling also allows you to keep a record of these goals and track your progress in terms of overall wellness.  

Don’t be fooled, mindfulness isn’t an easy thing to begin. Like changing your diet or starting a new exercise routine, mindfulness is also a habit that must be started. Introducing yourself to this new reflective aspect of your life can be difficult but slow integration into your daily routine will make it easier as time goes on. Practicing mindfulness should be a peaceful and personal time of your day and will allow you to become a more authentic version of yourself.