If you’re wondering how to live your best life: happy, healthy, free from needless stress and worries life – practicing mindfulness is the answer.

What is mindfulness?

So, first of all, what is mindfulness? Mindfulness means being aware of your mental and physical state, your feelings and thoughts. Mindfulness is a concept able to improve your quality of life, reduce anxiety and depression, make you happier and your life stress-free. A lot of life problems can be solved by practicing mindfulness. When you master it, you’ll be able to see life and reality in general free from illusions. Let’s find out how to practice mindfulness with these 30 best tips.

How to practice mindfulness

1. Judge less
2. Don’t try to change others
3. Stop trying to control everything
4. Stop thinking that you know other people’s thoughts
5. Treat others not as bad as they are, but as good as you are
6. Don’t cling to the past
7. Don’t live in the future
8. Don’t compare yourself to others
9. Don’t follow other people’s dreams
10. Work to become, not to acquire
11. Enjoy the little things
12. Listen to what your body is telling you
13. Ignore bad or terrifying news, TV series, movies
14. Understand what you want
15. Get rid of expectations
16. Don’t push yourself
17. Do what you like
18. Do less of what you don’t like
19. Spend less time on social media and reading news
20. Spend more time reading books
21. Spend more time on self-education
22. Don’t overthink or exaggerate
23. Let go of situations and people
24. Put your mental and physical health first
25. Meditate
26. Give others what you would like to have yourself: tip, donate, love selflessly
27. Care for animals and environment
28. Never revenge
29. Don’t lie
30. Trust the natural flow of events

Now let’s discuss how to practice mindfulness in more detail.

Judge less

If you constantly judge others, you’ll learn to judge yourself. This will cause anxiety as you will start thinking that other people judge you. But the truth is that other people may not have this issue, so they don’t judge you. It turns out that it’s your mind that judges you, not other people.

Don’t try to change others

It’s impossible to make a person, who doesn’t want it genuinely, change. You either accept people as they are or leave them.

Stop trying to control everything

You have no control over people and situations. You are not God. Learn to accept life as it is.

Stop thinking that you know other people’s thoughts

You can’t put yourself in someone else’s shoes because you will always be subjective. It’s in human nature. Everyone has a unique mindset and comes from a different background, so you can never totally understand another person.

Treat others not as bad as they are, but as good as you are

If it’s too difficult, at least don’t harm others. Don’t harm your karma.

Don’t cling to the past

Past is just a memory. There is no use spending time wandering in the past. It will not change your future.

Don’t live in the future

Live in the here-and-now. Focus on the present moment, on the action you’re doing at the moment. If you often live in the future, in your dream life, you’ll miss your entire life and maybe never even reach your dream life.

Don’t compare yourself to others

Everyone is going through life at their own pace. Someone may become a CEO at 25 but die at 50, while someone else may become a CEO at 50 and die at 90. Sometimes it’s better to be a live dog, than a dead lion. However, don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean that all successful people die young. I mean that everyone has their own path and their own destiny. Maybe if you knew more about the lives of people you compare yourself to, you wouldn’t want to live their lives. Read How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others.

Don’t follow other people’s dreams

Most probably you don’t even need most of the things you desire. It’s because social media has a lot of influence on our lives nowadays. Learn to distinguish your real dreams from those imposed on you as by society and influencers on social media as this will save you not only time and money but also make you happier.

Work to become, not to acquire

If you only work to buy new stuff, you’ll never get enough. There will always be new stuff advertised by yet another influencer on Instagram. When you understand that you’ve never actually lived the way you wanted because you were too busy working for acquiring “cool”, “trendy”, “luxurious” stuff you never actually needed or truly wanted instead of fulfilling your own dreams – it may be too late.

Enjoy the little things

Best things in life are free. Try to find joy in everything you do: in watching the rain, in walks in nature, in your morning coffee, in time you spend with your family, in playing with your dog, etc. Be grateful for what you have. You may want to read the article on how gratitude can change your life.

Listen to what your body is telling you

Don’t ignore it if your body tells you that it’s tired or sleepy, or needs a day off. If you’re ignoring signals your body is sending you, you may be ignoring a serious problem.

Ignore bad or terrifying news, TV series, movies

There’s a lot of violence in this world. But what’s the point in reading bad news and then watching a series about murders or listening to bad stories that happened to people you don’t know? Being aware of news is important but being focused on bad events all the time is not your responsibility, especially if you can do nothing to help or change the situation. Take care of your mental health. You don’t have to watch a crime story just because it’s popular and everyone you know is discussing it. If watching it makes you feel bad, if it makes you develop fears, turn it off. You don’t need extra negative emotions, fears, and anxiety in your life.

Understand what you want

Identify your own priorities so that you don’t find yourself following someone else’s dreams and copying someone else’s way of life.

Get rid of expectations

Best is the enemy of the good. When you have a lot of expectations, most of which are unrealistic, as you can’t control people and situations, you’ll often find yourself feeling rather disappointed than happy.

Don’t push yourself

Give yourself time to relax. Don’t push yourself to do something you’re not ready to do yet. One day as you grow through life, you will be ready.

Do what you like

Do what makes you happy and follow your dreams.

Do less of what you don’t like

Try not to do what you don’t like when it’s possible and not irresponsible. Of course, sometimes you just have to be responsible. However, in some cases people agree to do something they don’t like because they can’t say no or they think they are not good enough for doing what they like. If you hate your job – search for another one asap. Life is too short to put up with and get used to something you don’t like. Read Self Care is Making Yourself Your Priority.

Spend less time on social media and reading news

Whatever surrounds us, creates or changes our mindset. Learn more about the law of attraction. When you spend much time on social media, it affects the way you perceive reality. Your priorities in life can change in line with what’s popular in society. Moreover, because of social media and a habit of comparing yourself to others and constant need for external validation, you may start feeling anxious, inferior or superior, angry or even develop a depression. You may even lose your own path while following someone else’s dreams.

So, how to practice mindfulness when there’re so many distractions like terrifying news about crimes? People dedicate too much time to trying to keep up with news which, in most cases, is nothing else but informational junk. You have little control over reality whatsoever. So, reading bad news is just pointless if you can do nothing to improve the situation. Reading bad news can lead to stress and anxiety. As a result, you’ll feel unhappy. And don’t forget that you attract the kind of energy you radiate. You may eventually attract in your life what you fear the most.

Spend more time reading books

Talented authors can teach you great things as well as give answers to your questions or even change your mindset. Don’t resist change if it’s a positive one. Check out my list of 20 best must-read books of all time for what to read next.

Spend more time on self-education

You never know which of your skills will come in handy in several years. You never know where your life may take you. If your problem is self-sabotage, for example, procrastination – learn more about the trap of self-sabotage and how you can stop procrastination.

Don’t overthink or exaggerate

Most “problems” are actually much smaller and much more insignificant than what we imagine them to be. Do not attach too much value to words and situations. To practice mindfulness, focus on what you’re doing in the present moment. Always do your best. Do whatever you can, but if you can’t do something due to some reasons beyond your control, then there’s no point in overthinking.

Let go of situations and people

Neither situations nor people can affect you if you don’t let them. Only your present has real influence on your life. Trust the Universe and the natural flow of events. When one door closes, another one opens. Everything happens for a reason. What you consider to be a curse may actually turn out to be a blessing. Learn your spiritual lessons well and you’ll become stronger and happier.

Put your mental and physical health first

There is nothing more precious than health. Without health, physical and what’s even more important – mental, it’s difficult to lead a happy life, build healthy relationships, and become successful. Remember: “What you think – you become. What you feel –you attract. What you imagine – you create.” To improve health at all levels and feel great, read Health Is Not a Gift, It’s an Outcome.

Meditate

Although it’s not the only one, meditation is probably the most common answer to the question “how to practice mindfulness?”. If your mind is constantly wandering in the past, future, if you can’t stop this flow of thoughts, if you feel anxious, if you suffer from social anxiety – meditate for at least 15 minutes a day to reduce stress. With music or without (whatever is best for you), just sit comfortably or lay down if you want, be calm, breathe in and out and watch your breathing. Focus on the here-and-now: breathing, the sounds around you, the sensations in your body. Don’t try to stop your flow of thoughts, just watch them pass by, don’t focus on any thought. Soon you will realize that most of your worries exist only in your mind and they don’t matter.

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Give others what you would like to have yourself: tip, donate, love selflessly

How to practice mindfulness through gratitude? Everything in this world is energy. Give others the kind of energy you’d like to receive in your life. If you want to be rich – be generous, not stingy. If you want to be loved – give your love selflessly without expecting the same kind of love in return. See 24 Most Beautiful Quotes About Love. Don’t be jealous, don’t be anxious and clingy. You’ll never miss or lose something or someone that has something to do with your destiny.

Take care of animals and environment

While people have all means to help themselves, animals and environment need our protection. Taking care of animals and environment is one of not many meaningful things in the modern materialistic world. Also, it gives positive emotions.

Never revenge

If someone hurts you, never revenge. Remember that karma has no deadline. That person will get their payback anyway and you don’t want any negative karma for yourself. Wasting your time and energy on plotting a revenge is mindless and is just beneath you.

Don’t lie

Lying can only turn a small problem into a huge one. If you want to live a mindful life, be honest even if the truth is bitter.

Trust the natural flow of events

The Universe has a plan for everyone. You don’t know it, and you can’t change it on purpose. All you have control over is yourself. Improve yourself, practice mindfulness and let everything happen as it is supposed to. 

Now you know how to practice mindfulness and make your life easier and calmer. If you are interested in improving your quality of life through mindfulness and spirituality, I strongly recommend a book by Deepak Chopra called The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams. Also, see a related blogpost – Inspirational Quotes for Going Through Hard Times with free phone wallpapers.

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