Many of us are doing more walking than usual at the moment, partly because there is little else to do. There are a few things you can do to increase your sense of happiness while you are out. This has been a stressful year for most of us and our brains are wired to dwell on the negative. It is normal to be thinking about our difficulties while we are out, but there are some easy ways to change this and give ourselves a break from the stress.
Mindfulness can help you to get the most out of your time outside whether you are walking or running. It is something that you can start right now today. A few small tweaks in how you think about your movement can help it be easier to get out there and more enjoyable while you are out.
Mindfulness is about knowing what is going on inside your head and being able to manage it better. We have all had the positive experience of going for a walk or a run and feeling that we have left all our stress behind. Inevitably some of us have also had the experience where we have taken our stress out with us, mulled it over, had fictional arguments inside our heads, thought about all the possible worse case scenarios and come home feeling just as annoyed about it, if not more so.
Mindfulness helps you to spot when your mind has taken off in an unhelpful direction. If you can nip this in the bud and bring it back into reality, that will help you to manage the stress going on in your life.
We cannot change many of our current circumstances, but we can choose what we focus on. We can choose whether we dwell on what we can’t change and whether we cling on to resentments. We can choose to focus on the things in life that are going well, or will help us to feel happier.
You can put this into practice next time you are outside. Just try to notice where your mind tends to wander. See if you can bring it back into the present.
Top 3 tips for bringing your focus to the present are:
1 Notice your immediate surroundings and note them.
“The sky is blue, the grass is green.”
2 Notice what you can see, hear and feel.
Notice the wind on your face, your feet hitting the pavement.
3 Bring your attention to what you have to feel grateful for today.
I feel grateful for my ability to walk / run.
I feel grateful for my family / friends / health / job / the longer, warmer days
This can help you to get out more often. Rather than thinking, “I haven’t got enough time so it’s not worth it”, or “maybe I will just go tomorrow”, you could think about deciding to go out every day, or every other day just to start the habit or to try mindful movement. Just for the sake of being out, or giving it a go.
Small breaks and a few minutes of mindful walking can make a big difference to your day, and your overall sense of happiness and health.
If you are interested in practicing this more often, you might like to have a look at the Facebook group below. I am looking for some volunteers who are interested in using these methods to feel a bit better and move a bit more. https://www.facebook.com/groups/mindfulrunningwithpenny/
The aim is to increase our physical and mental wellbeing with small easy changes.
See if you can ty those 3 tips today, even just for a few minutes. Let me know how it goes.