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Walking meditation -

Walking meditation is exactly how it sounds. While walking, try to only focus on your movement. When your mind wanders, bring it back to focusing on your feet. Counting your steps can help.

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Mindful driving -

Mindful driving will benefit a lot of us. Do this by focusing on the vehicle beneath you, its weight, the gravel beneath the car, and the vehicles and pedestrians around you. Turn off the music and focus solely on driving.

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Single-tasking -

As it sounds, single-tasking means focusing all your attention on one task. This task can be anything. You can focus on ironing, on breathing–whatever!

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Mindful eating -

Try eating with your non-dominant hand, and dine in silence and focus on the tastes, aromas, and texture of the food. Chew slowly, focusing on each bite.

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Mindful gardening -

Gardening has great benefits for our mental health. It's a mindfulness practice and brings us closer to nature at the same time. Feel the soil. Is it hot? Is it cold? Is it wet, or dry? Focus on the chill in the air or the hot sun beaming down causing beads of sweat to drip from your brows.

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Five-senses scavenger hunt -

For children, scavenger hunts are a great way of engaging the senses. They will need a safe environment for exploration. Teach kids to speak about what they hear, what catches their eye, what they smell, how things feel to touch, and so on.

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Monkey see, monkey do -

This is a great game to teach children to be more aware of their body and the space it inhabits. They will need to focus fully while trying to balance on one foot, for example. Make it silly, and make it fun!

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Dragon breathing -

Dragon breathing is a fun way to get children to practice deep and slow breathing while also having fun. Instruct them to take a big deep breath into their chest and belly and breathe out slowly and long like a dragon breathing fire. Tip: it can be fun for kids to hold a paper in front of them to blow at and watch it move.

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Bubble blowing -

Bubble blowing is fun, to begin with. But try asking children to explain how they feel, whether it be hungry or tired, and then ask them to imagine that feeling inside a bubble they blow away. Point out that feelings are like bubbles–they come and go and sometimes pop.

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Calm cards -

Ask children to reflect on activities that make them feel calm, like drinking water and story time. You can provide them with the tools to draw or color in cards that illustrate the activity. The goal is to have a stack that you can bind together so they can use it when they feel angry or upset.

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Music appreciation -

Teenagers can have a difficult time with their emotions. However, most people enjoy music, and a great mindfulness activity for teens especially is music appreciation. Ask them to choose a song they haven’t heard much before and focus on how it makes their body feel when they listen, what sounds they’re noticing they didn’t before, and how it makes their breathing change.

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Mindful movement -

Mindful movement is another great activity for teens to practice. It’s a form of self-expression and requires a singular focus. Like dancing, they can simply try to interpret the music with their bodies.

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Shaking -

Body shaking is another great and simple way for anyone to practice mindfulness. It’s also understood to be a tension-removing exercise, or TRE. As people shake their bodies, it’s difficult not to focus on exactly how the body is feeling.

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Puzzles -

Puzzles are a great way to sharpen the mind, but they’re also a mindfulness practice. They’re fun and rewarding. Consider crosswords, sudoku, and riddles. Then try reflecting on how frustration makes your body feel and how it affects your breathing.

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Apps -

We live in the 21st century, which means that whatever it is you’re trying to achieve, there’s an app for it! Give a few a shot.

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Body scanning -

A body scan is simple. Start by lying down and possibly closing your eyes. Try to pay attention to any pain or tension that your body is experiencing.

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Tracking -

Tracking is another simple and effective way to practice mindfulness. Sit in the center of a room with your eyes closed for a moment. When you open your eyes, zero in on objects around the room, focusing on them and giving them your complete attention.

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Box breathing -

Box breathing, or square breathing, involves taking deep and full breaths in through the nose, filling up the chest and belly, and breathing out through the mouth. Try focusing completely on your breathing.

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Acceptance and self-compassion - Anxiety can cause more anxiety. One way of relieving this is through acceptance of the feeling and through self-compassion.

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Blindfolded movement -

Mindfulness can also be practiced in groups. One way is through blindfolded movement. One person can guide while another moves. It’s nice to introduce safe obstacles. When your eyes are blindfolded while moving, you have no choice but to focus intently on other senses.

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Eye gazing -

Eye gazing is an effective and intense mindfulness practice. With a partner, stare into the eyes of each other without words for one to five minutes. You can switch partners routinely if in large groups. This one may bring up emotions for some people.

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Partner breathing -

Partner breathing is a great way to focus on your breathing and your belly expanding because you have your partner there to sync rhythms with, like jogging with a friend.

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Laughter yoga -

It’s hard to worry or think about many different things when you’re laughing. Laughter group yoga practice focuses on playfulness, fun, and joy.

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Sound healing and music therapy -

Music therapy isn’t to be overlooked as a form of therapeutic mindfulness practice. Sound and music have tremendous power to heal.

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Coloring and doodling -

There are plenty of doodling and coloring books out there for adults. Coloring and doodling are common ways of tuning out of your surroundings and tuning in to the pencil on the paper.

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Crafting -

Crafting with your hands with any form of material is usually a very mindful practice. This can be wood carving, paper mache, knitting, or pottery.

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Art therapy -

In a similar vein, art therapy can be a mindful practice too. It’s used to treat PTSD, anxiety, and depression. But it can benefit almost anyone.

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Deep-seeing exercise -

Deep seeing is a mindfulness activity that’s similar to observing objects in a room. Instead, you take one object and focus your entire visual attention on it. For example, if it’s a scarf, focus on the folds, the colors, the fabric, the weight, and basically everything about it.

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Deep-listening exercise -

Wherever you may be, sit and listen intently to the sounds around you. Focus on them and try not to let your focus stray. The best thing is that this can be done anywhere, in a noisy city or in serene nature.

Sources: (Healthline) (Positive Psychology)

See also: Reasons why people refuse to go to therapy

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