Mindful Moment (Observation) - A Slow Experiment

In this week’s episode Brooke and Ben continue their month of Mindful Moments for the Slow Experiment, looking at the technique of mindful attention or observation. This is something that Brooke has been practicing for a few years now, and is an excellent example of just how simple mindfulness can be.

At its core, mindfulness is paying attention, and this technique takes that to a granular level. Try sitting in study of a tiny detail for a couple of minutes, noticing something you wouldn’t have otherwise, and then see how you feel afterwards. Another way to do this is a body scan, where you sit and rotate your awareness through each of your five senses for a couple of minutes in total - getting very specific about what you can see, hear, smell, touch and taste. Brooke still remembers the impact this had on her at the height of her overwhelm and depression years ago, and the way it would pull her into the present moment and out of resentment and anxiety.

For Ben, this mindful attention technique translates to the workplace as single-tasking. After years of being told multitasking is gold, he now breaks projects down into tasks and then works through those tasks one at a time, focusing on nothing else until the one at hand is complete.

There are so many benefits to these techniques of stripped-back mindfulness. Brooke shares a study she found that said even after one week of a short daily mindfulness practice, participants showed significant improvements in attention, energy and ability to cope with stress, as well as in processing, working memory and executive functioning.

We’d love to hear how you’re going if you’re playing along, and whether you’ve noticed any benefits like these. Let us know how you go - connect on Facebook and Instagram. To read more about the episode, head over to http://slowyourhome.com/255/ for all the links and resources mentioned, as well as the full blog post.

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