Do you get anxious? Do you tend to overthink things? Is your mind buzzing like a bee all day every day? Does doomscrolling make you feel like a floating mind without a body? If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, stick around. You—yes, you—might stand to benefit from the ancient art of mindfulness, which is a fancy word for “getting your mind to stay still for even one single second.”
It’s a little more complex than that, to be sure. But mastering the basics of mindfulness is a pretty simple process, and you can get started right away, wherever and whenever you are. To start, just sit or lay down, and close your eyes. (Note: close them after you’ve finished reading this section.) Then, breathe normally. Don’t try to force anything—let your body breathe however it wants to.
How does it feel? Where can you feel the breath in your body? Often you’ll feel it most strongly in the abdomen or chest, but you can also feel it in your back, your head, or anywhere else in your body, even your hands and feet. Take a few breaths and notice whether they’re more shallow or more deep, longer or shorter. What kind of breathing feels more comfortable? Can you make it more comfortable?
If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! You did a mindfulness! Meditation doesn’t have to be a boring slog, and it shouldn’t be. Have fun with it—if you notice your attention starting to drift, try to find ways to make it more interesting.
You could—for example—pull your ears back and hum while you breathe (this is called bumblebee breathing, and yes, it’s a real thing), or you could do a series of quick, short breaths like a panting puppy (again, yeah, that’s a thing). Whatever feels interesting to you in the moment, try it out.
One goal of this kind of mindful breathing is to bring you back into your body, in order to give yourself a reprieve from the wear and tear of daily life. It’s a chance to rest—really, actually rest—both your body and your mind. When you can get your mind and body to be still, it allows you to begin to heal from whatever wounds you’ve acquired in the course of your life; imagine a hurt animal laying down very quietly in the forest.
When mindfulness becomes a habit, your breath becomes a place to go in any circumstance, no matter how uncomfortable or painful it may be. As long as you’re alive, your breath is always there with you—it’s a good idea to make friends with it.
That’s not to say that it’s only useful for uncomfortable situations! Mindfulness allows you to more fully take in your present experience, including the good things. Take the way you eat: most of the taste of whatever you’re eating is transmitted through smell, which is mediated by—you guessed it—your breath.
Try paying attention to how you breathe the next time you eat a meal. Are you getting a full breath in through your nose? Can you describe how the food smells, and how it tastes? How does it feel in your mouth? If it’s good, great! You can be that much more aware of just how good it is. If it’s bad—well, stop eating.
In the United States, most people probably associate meditation with Buddhism, but practically every religion or spiritual tradition includes its own form of meditation. It doesn’t require you to subscribe to any specific belief system, or even to hold any beliefs at all. All you need is your breath and your awareness—two things that every person on Earth has.
Don’t just take my word for it—there are countless (free!) resources available online, or at your local library (seriously, please use the library). If you want a good place to start, just type “Thich Nhat Hanh meditation” into the YouTube search bar and click on whatever piques your interest the most.
Part of the appeal of mindfulness is its universality: your breath is always with you wherever you go. If you have a second or two to take a few breaths in and out, you can practice mindfulness. There are no guarantees, but if you make it a habit to sit with your breath for a few minutes every day, you might be amazed at how much you’re able to help your mind and body settle down. And god, wouldn’t it be nice to chill out for a while?
