Mindfulness Practices: How to Reduce Stress And Worry Less

In recent times, there has been constant talk about cultivating mindfulness and consciousness in the health and wellness world. Many studies are also being conducted to understand how it makes us stress less and manage our anxieties. After all, these problems are more rampant than ever, which is why these practices are much-needed.

If you are also constantly stressed and worried, then you need to learn some practices that will help you manage your stress better. Keep in mind that these practices will not cure your stress or magically make it go away. Instead, these are there to help with the management.

So, here is all that you need to know about mindfulness practices.

Mindful Breathing: Try These Deep Breathing Exercises

The breath is how we receive life and continue to exist, as it is what keeps us going. However, most of us have shallow breaths that we don’t even realize. On the other hand, breathing deeply creates space in the body that allows you to manage your anxiety and stress.

Mindful breathing is all about focusing on your breath and observing how it enters and leaves your body. Here are some deep breathing exercises you can try today:

1. Five Deep Breaths

If you are a beginner at mindful breathing, then you can start with a simple technique. It involves taking five deep breaths and counting each one. Inhale slowly and count one as you inhale through the nose.

Then, exhale through the mouth and count to two. Keep doing this until you reach the count of five. You can do this as many times as you like to get you to stress less.

2. Belly Breathing

Deep breathing requires you to breathe into your belly. This means that you breathe deeply to puff out your belly so that you can fill your lungs with air. If you are new to this, you can also put your hand on your stomach to feel your belly rising and falling as you breathe.

When you breathe in, the belly will push out. On the other hand, when you exhale, the belly will fall back in.

3. Breathing While Alternating Nostrils

It is a fantastic mindful breathing technique for anyone that feels overwhelmed. The idea behind this type of breathing is to create a balance in the right and left brain hemispheres to ensure a peaceful mind. You must sit upright for this exercise while elongating your spine and keeping your shoulders relaxed.

Here is what you need to do:

Close your left nostril using your left thumb
Take a slow inhale through your right nostril
Pause for a second
Put any finger from the right hand to close your right nostril
Time to let go of the left thumb from the nostril, and exhale from your left nostril
Pause for a second
Keep your fingers where they are
Breathe through the left one and pause
Close the left one with the left thumb
Let go of the finger you have chosen from the right nostril and exhale
This is one complete count

Keep repeating these steps for as long as you like. By the time you are done, your brain will feel much more relaxed and calmer.

Gratitude Journaling: How to Be Thankful Every Day

Gratitude is the right attitude toward life because it will help you stay happy and count your blessings. Gratitude journaling involves writing down things that you are grateful for daily. This can be the simple things such as having a roof over your head or clean water to drink.

Sometimes we take these things for granted and don’t realize that there are people in the world who don’t even have this. Here are some tips to be thankful daily and create a practice of gratitude journaling:

Do It Before Sleeping Or After Waking Up

A great way to be thankful every day is to do it as soon as you wake up or when you end the day. These are the most important times of the day that help us set the tone for what is to come ahead. Doing it every night before you go to bed will help you review your day, and even if it wasn’t the best, you would still find many things to be thankful for.

Be Specific

You have to be specific about what you are grateful for to cultivate a positive mindset. It is easy to generalize, but specifying it will help you focus on important blessings. For example, instead of writing you are grateful for the people in your life, you can write about the person you are most grateful for and why that is.

Record Surprising Things That Happened To You

If you want to cultivate more gratitude, you can write about something surprising that happened which made you happy. Unexpected events can make you even happier and help you be grateful for your blessings.

Meditation To Change Your Perspective On Life

Finally, meditation is the last mindfulness practice that you can add to your life. You can do it sitting, standing, walking, doing menial house chores, and much more. You can start with a few minutes and then keep adding to it each day.

In the long run, meditation will help you create a calm mind, stress less, focus on the good things in life, and create a positive attitude. You can do a breathing-based meditation or an object-based meditation. Once you incorporate meditation into your life, your outlook on life will completely change.

Final Thoughts

These are all the mindfulness practices that you need to try today if you want to decrease your stress and worry less. Keep in mind that you will have to incorporate these practices into your daily life if you want to see results. It will take some time, but it will be worth it.

So, begin with breathing and finally make your way to meditation. Soon enough, these practices will become a regular part of your life, without which you will not be able to live.

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Josh Dudick

Josh is the owner and lead writer at Daily Wisely. His career has taken him from finance to blogging, and now shares his insights with readers of Daily Wisely.

Josh's work and authoritative advice have appeared in major publications like Nasdaq, Forbes, The Sun, Yahoo! Finance, CBS News, Fortune, The Street, MSN Money, and Go Banking Rates. Josh has over 15 years of experience on Wall Street, and currently shares his financial expertise in investing, wealth management, markets, taxes, real estate, and personal finance on his other website, Top Dollar Investor.

Josh graduated from Cornell University with a degree from the Dyson School of Applied Economics & Management at the SC Johnson College of Business.