Mindful Tricks To Transform Your Day

We spent many years working with a mindful expert called Kim on a magazine series called Art Therapy. Some of the little tricks she taught us over that time really stuck with us. Here are a few of our favourites.

RAGE COMPOST

When you’re having a really bad day and everything's going against you, you can become so wound up that you start making mistakes or snapping at everyone, which only compounds your bad energy!!

It's a dreadful spiral but we know how you can stop it. Try this simple little exercise, it can be enough to flip your entire mood.

Grab a sheet of paper and a pencil and scribble furiously until you feel it dissipate.

Then write down:

• What I wish was different is…

• What I can control is…

• One thing I can do right now is…

Then tear the page up. Or burn it! It’s cathartic and clarifying.

THRESHOLD RESET

Here's another neat little trick and the beauty is, you can do it anywhere - at work, at home, on holiday - maybe not on public transport though!

So, next time you're finding that the stress is building and you're starting to reach boiling point, use a doorway as a reset. Pause on the threshold, breathe out a long exhale. Let the breath sink all the way down to the bottom of your stomach. Feel the muscles in your neck and face relax.

Smile.

Imagine you are walking through a portal – on the other side you will feel calmer. It doesn't sound like much but it's an easy way to build a nervous-system reset into a busy day.

OPPOSITE HAND

If nothing else, this one will make you laugh! It's good practice to keep your mind from resting constantly in automatic pilot and there are lots of different ways that you can do this (that's a good idea for another post!) but this one is a favourite.

It's easy - just try to do one small task every day with your non-dominant hand. Stir your tea, comb your hair, brush your teeth or simply open a drawer. It forces your brain into paying attention to just this, which is the key to feeling truly alive but it can also interrupt spiralling thoughts and clear your mind.

We hope you find these little tricks useful. Let us know in the comments!