Whenever I hear the word “Mindfulness”, my BS sensor goes haywire. It’s not like you’re gonna tell someone whose life is falling apart to just be more mindful. “Every aspect of my day sucks, but now I’m more present and feel every little detail of this eternal nightmare I found myself in. Thanks, man....”

I might have been too closed-minded though. Shocker, I know. As if someone with an ego as large as mine would ever make a mistake. But let’s suspend our disbelief for just a second and assume I was wrong in calling mindfulness a big hoax.

I tried to remove all empty phrases and new age nonsense from typical mindfulness practices and here’s three tangible, no BS learnings I got out of it:

Mindfulness connects you with your emotions

Be mindful of your emotions. What the hell does that mean? Let me explain:

Have you ever felt “meh” but didn’t know why? Tired, annoyed, and drained, without anything specific to blame, except for “stress” and the outside world in general? Then try this:

Set yourself a reminder that reads “How do you feel?”. Preferably at random times throughout the day. When you see it, try to ignore all the crap that’s going on right now, and focus on what’s happening inside of you. Bonus points for putting these emotions into words and writing them down.

The goal is to get into a habit of connecting with your emotional state every now and then. In the long run, this will keep you from finding yourself in situations you don’t enjoy. At least not without it being a conscious choice.

And if we want to coat it in (hopefully non-toxic) positivity: You get all the fancy benefits of practicing “gratitude” for free. Cause sometimes when the reminder goes off, you’ll actually feel kinda good about yourself and everything around you. It’s nice to enjoy those moments of serenity.

Just don’t run around singing songs about it like a Disney princess. People will think you’re weird. Unless that’s your thing of course.

Another one of those moments where I had to admit: Fuck, my therapist knows what’s up. Because she recommended something very similar a long time ago.

Mindfulness makes you appreciate the present moment

At a certain point, life feels like a blur for everyone, right? Can you remember what you did 1 week ago? I sure as hell can’t. Might be better that way...

Don’t get me wrong. Everyone having a perfect recollection of all minute things they did years ago doesn’t solve pretty much anything. And who cares about those details anyway? Well, you should, at least while they’re happening.

Let’s be real here: How much of your day is spent in the present moment? As opposed to thinking about what you’ll have to do today, what to grab for dinner, oh and suddenly you remembered that awkward exchange you had with someone you fancied a few years back. Let’s go over that again and again for the next 3 hours, sounds like fun!

Similar to listening to your emotions, paying attention to what you are doing, hearing, touching, smelling at any given moment is something to strive for. Why? Because I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t want to miss out on truly experiencing your best week ever because you were busy thinking about the next one.

And while you might tell yourself that you’ll be “in the moment” when those highlights come around, I’m gonna give you some tough love right now: You fucking won’t! Being present is a skill you need to sharpen every day, not just when it’s convenient.

And it’s not like it doesn’t have any immediate benefits, which brings me to my last point:

Being mindful can relieve stress and anxiety

When your mind is racing, it’s usually not concerned with whatever is happening right now, but long gone shit from the past or made-up shit from the future.

Let’s throw a mindfulness wrench into the works of this misery machinery.

Ask yourself: Where am I? What is actually going on around me at this very moment? Do I really need to be bothered by all that crap right now? Is any of that actually tangible?

In recent times, I’m beginning to get the hang of this. I’m a busy guy (even though I’m obviously still finding the time to post this stuff, so take that with a heavy grain of salt), and I tend to get lost in a downwards spiral of anxiety every now and then. But actively pulling the proverbial brakes when my mind is racing is such a relief. I promised you a no BS approach to mindfulness, and no shit: this stuff really works. Give it a try. How about right now?

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