Boost Your Energy With Mindfulness
Hello and welcome to episode 304 of The Mindful Kind podcast about mindfulness and how it can help boost your energy. This is a topic I covered a little bit in my online workshop, 3 Secrets You Need To Know To Level Up With Mindfulness, but I think it’s super interesting and I want to dive a little deeper into the topic on this episode.
Just in case you’re new to The Mindful Kind, I’ll quickly describe what mindfulness is and give you a quick example.
Mindfulness is the practice of being present in the moment with an attitude of curiosity and open-mindedness. People have been practicing mindfulness for thousands of years through various religions and traditions, including Buddhism and yoga. And in more recent years, mindfulness has become more popular thanks to its accessibility and various research that suggests benefits including greater emotional intelligence, improvements in cognitive skills (like attention and memory), and lower stress.
Here’s a quick example of what a mindfulness practice can look like. Imagine you’ve gone for a walk through a garden, and this time, you’re not being very mindful. You’re thinking about a mistake you made at work last week and replaying it in your mind and worrying about what your colleagues think of you. When you reach the end of your walk, you can barely remember anything about the experience of walking through the garden because you were largely focused on your thoughts about the past.
Now, let’s take the same situation, but instead, you’re practicing mindfulness as you walk. You’re noticing the world around you, the colours of the flowers in the garden, and the feeling of the sunshine on your skin. You feel the solid ground underneath your feet as you walk and notice how your body feels as you walk. You might hear different sounds, birds singing, frogs croaking, or the sounds of traffic in the distance. When you start thinking about the mistake you made at work, you deliberately re-focus your attention back on the present moment and the world around you.
There are a few important things to know about practicing mindfulness.
First of all, there are many, many different ways you can incorporate it into your life. You can practice mindfulness through formal meditation or in less formal ways, like gardening, knitting, eating, or walking.
Second of all, mindfulness is a practice. It can be challenging at first and your mind might wander a lot, which is completely normal. It might take some time and patience before practicing mindfulness starts to feel a bit more natural.
And thirdly, mindfulness can be a really helpful practice and for me, it’s enriched my life in so many different ways. But that doesn’t mean it’s perfect for every situation or that it will solve all the problems in your life. Even if you have a consistent and supportive mindfulness practice, you will still face stressors, sometimes. You might still need to work with a mental health professional for support or take medication. You can still benefit from other things that boost your wellbeing, like exercising, journaling, or prioritising sleep.
Now, let’s take a look at how mindfulness can help improve your energy. Please keep in mind that I’ll be sharing a few of my own experiences and because we’re different people, you might not have the same experiences. And that’s ok! I’ve had clients and students who started implementing mindfulness and noticed benefits faster than I did, some have noticed completely different results, and some have faced challenges along their mindfulness journeys.
The first reason why mindfulness can boost your energy…
Mindfulness can help you improve your sleep quality. This was the first benefit I noticed in my own life when I started practicing mindfulness nearly ten years ago. Rather than lying in bed night after night with my thoughts going haywire, I loved being able to focus my mind on mindfulness techniques. They helped me feel less stressed and I began falling asleep much faster.
Not every night was perfect, but the more I practiced, the easier it became to implement mindfulness at night time. Over a couple of months, I went from lying awake until well after midnight, to falling asleep most nights around 10 or 11 pm. It was a massive deal for me. Not only did I stop dreading going to bed, but I had more energy during the day. I didn’t feel physically drained and exhausted as often.
Since then, mindfulness has played a big role in my bedtime routine, along with other things that I’ve found helpful, like not drinking coffee after lunch, having time to wind down before sleep, and waking up at the same time each morning.
The second reason why mindfulness can boost your energy…
Mindfulness helps reduce emotional suppression. In my online course, Mindfulness Made Easy, I dedicated an entire module to mindful emotional awareness because I know this skill can be really important when it comes to acknowledging and processing emotions.
Mindful emotional awareness can also reduce emotional suppression, which was something I used to do a lot. Whenever I noticed an emotion that I believed at the time was “bad” or “wrong,” like stress, anger, jealousy, resentment, or depression, I consciously tried to ignore the emotion and pretend like it didn’t exist.
Not only does emotional suppression potentially lead to a variety of issues, like lower self-esteem, physical symptoms (like higher blood pressure), increased anxiety and depression, and problems with memory. But it can also drain your energy. Research has found that when you try to push away painful emotions and thoughts, it can actually lead to more painful emotions, creating a challenging cycle.
I remember how draining it used to feel when I had to work so hard to ignore emotions and keep them locked away inside me. It was like trying to grit my teeth really tightly for hours at a time. I didn’t know how to regulate my emotions very well and learning about mindfulness, particularly when it came to being non-judgemental about my emotions and letting them come and go, was honestly life-changing for me.
The third reason why mindfulness can boost your energy…
Mindfulness often encourages you to focus on one thing at a time. Multi-tasking might be convenient, even necessary at times, but it can be helpful to try and single-task when we can. Focusing on one thing carefully at a time and giving it our full, open-minded attention, can help conserve energy.
For example, try going for a mindful walk instead of walking and talking on your phone at the same time.
Eat your lunch mindfully rather than eating while you scroll on social media.
Pay attention to someone when they’re talking to you, sometimes, instead of thinking about your to-do list for the day ahead.
Take mindful breaks regularly to avoid multi-tasking all day long.
We might feel like we’re great at doing multiple things at the same time, but we’re actually not. We’re just switching our attention very quickly between multiple things, which uses up our energy. More specifically, multi-tasking uses up oxygenated glucose in the brain, which is the fuel you use to focus on things. So, by practicing mindfulness you can help save this type of energy.
Those are three reasons why mindfulness can help boost your energy. It can help improve the quality of your sleep, it can reduce emotional suppression, and it can encourage more single-tasking which saves energy. Now if you’re thinking, “ok, I’d really like to practice mindfulness more,” but maybe you’re not sure how or you struggle to be consistent, then I’ve got some really exciting news for you!
My signature online course, Mindfulness Made Easy is open for enrolment.
Mindfulness Made Easy isn’t just a course about mindfulness. It’s an amazing experience where you’ll have all the support and accountability you need to create an incredible mindfulness practice that you can draw on for the rest of your life. You’ll discover some of the key mindfulness techniques and how to apply them in really fun and meaningful ways so you can spend more time feeling present in the moment and less overwhelmed, stressed, or scattered.
Thanks so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind.
ONLINE COURSE
Mindfulness Made Easy
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