I define Mindfulness as the ability to stay in or bring yourself back to the present moment, with a non-critical and kind attitude, so that you can choose a skilful response. This pause and response allows the avoidance of actions that may be reactive and harmful to yourself and others (for example losing your temper when you’re feeling stressed), and also supports retraining your brain (new patterns of thought and behaviour strengthen new neural pathways in your brain, and the formerly well-practiced ones begin to weaken). This, in a nutshell, is how taking care of the moments helps builds new mental and emotional habits, and eventually helps you take care of your life. 

So when you are caught in cycles of self-doubt, unhappy or stressful thoughts and emotions, or behaviours that you would like to change, mindfulness allows a return to this present moment, a pause in which you have a choice.  

But before you use these techniques in challenging circumstances, you might want to slowly build the muscle of mindfulness with some of these simple daily life practices:

1. Ring Ring – next time a bell or alert rings, check in: what are you aware of? Where are you? How are you feeling in your body? 
2. Use your non-dominant hand – choose an activity and use your non-dominant hand. Eg if you’re right handed then use your left to brush your teeth, comb your hair, feed yourself, type on your phone. It’s going to be uncomfortable, but see what it does to your level of attention and care? 
3. Take a different route – maybe something to try if you’re not in lockdown! if you tend to take the same way to and from work or a familiar place, why not try a different route? Feel what that might feel like, notice if your attention is different in any way, look around you!
4. Touch! – for a few minutes of quiet, sit and focus on the sense of touch. Maybe you can just use your hand and hold your other wrist, or place your hands on the table or seat beside you. Or if you have a rock, pebble, seashell, some small object that you can hold in your hand. Focus on the sense of contact, touch, texture, shape, temperature.
5. Just one thing – a real classic, but oh so difficult to do! Try choosing one activity that you will do just by itself, no multi-tasking or wandering away. See what that’s like! 
6. Pause for joy – do you notice the moments of simple pleasures or kindness? Next time something nice happens – you enjoy a cold drink of a hot summer’s day, or someone holds the door for you or offers a heartfelt smile – pause for a moment and savour it. Even better if you can notice how many of those moments you might actually have in a day! 

If you really try these out, then you will know how simple, but not easy, they are. Keep trying, don’t give up – every new habit takes time to mature, and every old habit loves to cling on for as long as possible. Just notice what it’s like when you can notice for just for a moment, without being critical of yourself or the situation – in that window of kind presence is the seed of what’s possible!