Developing a mindfulness practice offers myriad positive benefits for the body and mind (Davis & Hayes, 2011).

But sometimes, it’s easier said than done. 

Have you ever wanted to bring more mindfulness into your life, but struggle to make time in your chaotic schedule? Or do you set the intention to go about your day more mindfully, only to fall into the trap of snacking unconsciously or responding to emails on autopilot?

It’s not easy in the beginning, and there will be bumps along the path toward a committed mindfulness practice. 

This article will guide you through various ways and resources to help introduce mindfulness in your life so that you are well prepared to start your journey.

. These science-based comprehensive exercises will not only help you cultivate a sense of inner peace throughout your daily life, but also give you the tools to enhance the mindfulness of your clients, students, children, or employees.

How to Begin Practicing Mindfulness

If you are a complete beginner to mindfulness, I’d recommend our article What Is Mindfulness?, which includes a full definition and lists significant benefits of mindfulness.

At its core, mindfulness is an activity that needs to be practiced regularly and with intention. With these cornerstones in mind, let’s consider a few ways to introduce mindfulness into our daily lives.

Start with a daily routine

The first step is to introduce a daily routine. Like any exercise, mindfulness benefits from regular practice. Researchers often use a mindfulness intervention plan that takes place across many weeks (Mackenzie, Poulin, & Seidman-Carlson, 2006; Hofmann, Sawyer, Witt, & Oh, 2010).

Decide on an uninterrupted time of day that you can set aside to practice mindfulness, and keep that time in your schedule.

Mindfulness is a way of perceiving, thinking, and behaving

You would be forgiven for thinking that mindfulness is just an activity; in fact, mindfulness is a way of perceiving and observing, and it can be developed using various tools. Some of these tools include meditation, exercises, and breathing.

Commit, commit, commit

The most important step before embarking on this journey is to commit to it. Some meta-analyses have highlighted varying effects for mindfulness interventions, and the authors posit that this might be because the participants are not engaging in their mindfulness homework exercises or engaging for too short a period to see results (Khoury et al., 2013).

Knowing this, before you begin, you have to commit. Next, month we will explore why you should start a mindfulness routine and how to live a mindful daily life.