3 Ways to Bring More Mindfulness to Your Day
By Safiya Bouhouch
When you think of wellness, what comes to mind? For many of us, we equate wellness with green juices, yoga mats, and starting your morning with adaptogenics and wellness tonics, but the truth is wellness can be simple, and free!
While filling your body with nourishing foods is important to your wellbeing, there are three basic pillars of well-being that are non-negotable for me as a meditation coach and wellness practitioner: hydration, meditation, and breathwork.
Hydration - so it’s old news, but it’s true! Hydration is key to making sure our body is working optimally, and aids in digestion (and it’s free!) If you’re feeling tired, sluggish, or have headaches, check to make sure that you’re drinking enough water!
Switching out soda, juices, and sugar-heavy beverages with a glass of water and a spritz of lemon or lime is a great way to stay hydrated and is budget friendly too! Drinking half your body weight in ounces is a general rule, I make sure to drink 3-4 large mason jars of water a day.
Meditation - the benefits of meditation are endless, from lower stress levels and better emotional regulation to higher cognitive function. Meditation allows us to create space between ourselves and our thoughts and emotions, and it gives us more clarity on how we can navigate challenges - whether emotional, financial, or physical.
I start my day with 10-20 minutes of meditation before looking at my phone or checking emails. If you find your mornings or hectic, see if waking up 30 minutes earlier to get some meditation and reflection time works well for you! There are endless meditation apps and platforms to use, my personal favorite is doing this 5 minute simple breath focused meditation.
Breathwork - If the thought of looking at your finances brings up a lot of worry or stress, breathwork is a great tool to help regulate stress and bring some mindfulness around your emotions. One form of breathwork I practice whenever I find myself feeling stressed or worried is conscious 3 part breathing.
As you inhale through your nose, visualize your breath filling up your lower belly, and then rising into your chest. As you exhale, gently pull your belly button into your spine, releasing out your nose. If you’re able to slow down your inhales and exhales to a 6 second count, your body is able to enter a state of coherence where your nervous system relaxes and the physical symptoms of stress dissipate.
If you start with these 3 simple tips and start to create habits in your day where you’re mindfully breathing, meditating, and recharging your body with rest and hydration, you’ll start to find that your energy levels will increase, and your stress levels will lower.
Making shifts in your well-being can feel daunting, but if you take it a day at a time and start to build in routines and rituals, you’ll find that sometimes the smallest changes are the most impactful!
Bio: Safiya Bouhouch is a meditation coach for entrepreneurs who are ready to step into their power and leave anxiety and overwhelm behind. As the founder ofI Am Well, Safiya uses mindset and meditation as tools to support solopreneurs in healing from burnout and reconnecting to their intuition through mentorship, events, and retreats.