10 Mindfulness Activities to Elevate Your Mental State
The exhaustion from my mind being so full of unnecessary thoughts, judgments, dramas, and fears led me to seek ways to clear it. We often hear the phrase “peace of mind,” but I would rephrase it to “peace of the mind. ” After twelve years of deep study and meditation, this has been one of my biggest takeaways. Our busy minds running on overdrive create the need to elevate, find relief, and achieve peace.
I recently heard a teacher offer what feels like a more appropriate perspective on mindfulness. Paraphrased, he said that when we clear our minds of all the excess clutter, we can focus our undivided attention much more deeply on the present moment. As your attention focuses on any particular point, it becomes filled with that experience. So, in that sense, we can fill our minds with the present moment through awareness.
Here are 10 of my favorite mindfulness practices.
1. Conscious Breathing
2. Inner Body Awareness
3. Mindful Listening
4. Mindful Chores
5. Sitting in Silence
6. Mindfulness Bells
7. TRIPP
8. Being in Nature
9. Inner Check-in
10. People Watching
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1. Conscious Breathing
Conscious Breathing is one of the most simple yet profound practices. Notice your breathing in this moment as you read these words. Do you feel the air going in and out through your mouth or nose? Before I invited you to notice your breath, were you aware of it? Likely not. So, the moment before you noticed your breathing was “unconscious,” which means “lacking awareness,” but the moment you noticed your breath happening, it became a conscious breath.
2. Inner Body Awareness
Inner Body Awareness is a term coined by Eckhart Tolle. It is often also referred to as a body scan. Start by noticing the sensation of your hands. What does it feel like to have hands? Then, slowly move your attention throughout your whole body from head to toe. This practice has many layers of depth, but to start, it is simply bringing your attention fully to the feeling of your body. You have lived your whole life in this body of yours. You went to bed last night and woke up in your familiar body, but how often do we give our body attention? Inner body awareness is an excellent grounding exercise.
3. Mindful Listening
What sounds do you hear in this moment? Pause for a moment and deeply listen to all the various sounds occurring. There is a great Zen story about the art of listening. A teacher and his student were walking through the woods when the student asked the teacher, “What is Zen?” And the teacher replied, “Do you hear that mountain stream off in the distance?” The student listened for a brief moment but didn’t hear it. Then the teacher smiled and said, “Listen deeper.” The student became very still, and when his mind settled, he suddenly heard the very faint sound of water trickling. This is the gift of mindful listening. When we slow down and step aside, we can truly hear the reality around us. When I first started practicing this, I was amazed by the beauty of birds singing, insects chirping, and the wind blowing—sounds that had previously been mere background noise. As Ram Dass aptly said, “The quieter you become, the more you can hear.”
4. Mindful Chores
Practice doing simple chores such as washing dishes, doing laundry, and cooking with the intention of meditation underneath. When we do simple chores, we either resist them with inner complaining or get lost in thought. To mindfully do our chores is to find enjoyment and peace in the simplicity of the task. We need to stay alert when our attention drifts away and gently bring our focus back to what we’re doing. For example, we can feel the water running over our hands as we wash the dishes. If we are lost in thoughts about what we will do next or focused on past drama, we won’t be present with the dishes in front of us. A Zen Koans states, “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water” This points to how our every day “seemingly mundane” tasks can either be done in some form of suffering (before enlightenment) or in a state of peace (after enlightenment).
5. Sitting in Silence
Pausing everything and just sitting in silence for a moment. A moment of just being. This is the essence of meditation, though it is fascinating not to think of yourself as meditating when sitting in silence. Keep it simple and just be where you are. It can be quite refreshing to give ourselves permission to pause and put down all our “doings” for a moment. Even just five minutes is very beneficial.
6. Mindfulness Bells
Set a timer on your phone to go off periodically throughout the day. Each time it rings, it invites you to pause for a moment and focus on your favorite mindfulness technique. This concept was introduced to me by a Buddhist teacher named Thich Nhat Hanh. It is tremendously helpful in integrating mindfulness practices into our daily lives. Often, you will find that the bell goes off and catches you in some state of “non-mindfulness,” and then it becomes an invitation to come back to your intention of being present. There are many great free mindfulness bell apps available these days, or you can just set random timers on your phone to function with a similar intention.
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- 7. TRIPP
TRIPP is a journey to the heart of your mind. It’s a digital wellness platform that unlocks awe, wonder, calm, and focus. There are three excellent ways to explore the benefits of mindfulness with TRIPP .- Virtual Reality App: Explore mesmerizing worldscapes, soothing binaural audio, and guided meditations in VR.
- Together with TRIPP: A large community of practitioners who meet on various VR platforms to meditate and support each other.
- TRIPP Mobile App: This incredible app offers guided meditations, music, nature sounds, binaural audio, and even an AI guide named Kōkua to support your mindfulness journey.
As a session leader for Together with TRIPP, I am partial to the community. It still blows my mind that I get to meet with people worldwide and meditate as a group, make friends, and be involved with such a lovely community. The VR app is truly a mind-blowing experience, and the TRIPP mobile app is a tremendous resource in our pockets. I highly recommend checking out all three!
8. Being in Nature
Take some time to be out in nature! Go for a walk, sit in the grass, and pay attention to the trees, plants, animals, and beautiful world around you. If you are still looking for an immediate option, you can always look up at the sky. Japanese culture has a concept called a “Torii gate,” symbolizing the transition from the mundane to the sacred. Nature is one of the best examples of this. Being present in nature allows us to reconnect with it and see the immense beauty, mystery, and sacredness of our reality.
9. Inner Check-in
Pause and ask yourself, “How am I feeling now?” Cultivating inner awareness of how we feel in each moment is fundamental to meditation and mindfulness. It’s crucial to be deeply honest with ourselves during this inner check-in. If you’re feeling something pleasant, great! Enjoy it. But if you notice subtle or not-so-subtle discomforts, mindfulness invites you to focus more on them. If you feel stuck in a particular discomfort, let it guide you on what to seek help with. For example, if I checked in with myself and noticed anxiety, I would work with that. If I didn’t know how to address it, the keyword “anxiety” would be a helpful word to search when exploring various teachers and resources that might resonate.- 10. People Watching
Find a chill public space like a coffee shop and then focus on the scene in front of you. Take care to observe people coming and going without judgment. This practice is excellent for staying present in an active environment and offers a chance to catch and release preconceived notions about others. You’ll likely notice that most people are carried by the momentum of their schedules and activities. Workers fulfill their roles, and customers play their part. Nowadays, it’s common to see people staring at screens or talking to someone, making it rare to find someone sitting quietly, content with being fully present. Simply observe everything as it comes and goes. At the same time, stay aware of any thoughts that cross your mind and resist the urge to look at your phone or seek other distractions.
Mindfulness is a journey toward finding peace within ourselves, even amidst the chaos of daily life. By integrating these ten mindfulness practices, we can transform ordinary moments into opportunities for deeper presence and awareness. Whether through conscious breathing, mindful listening, or simply being in nature, each practice invites us to slow down, reconnect, and experience the world more fully. Embrace these practices as tools to cultivate a serene mind and a richer, more mindful existence.
