5 Mindfulness Techniques to Reduce Anxiety and Feel Calmer

Even the happiest of people have down days. Yup, they sure do. Do you know there are some simple and quick fixes to pick yourself back up again? We don’t like to stay down too long so you figure out how the heck to get out of a poopy mood. Applying mindfulness techniques will snap you back into pure joy.

I’m pretty sure most of my friends, colleagues, and associates (geesh that word just sounds so mature or something) believe that when I’m not riding around on my unicorn, I’m at home dancing, singing, laughing and just having a grand ol’ time.

Well, that’s partly true. I sing a lot because it makes me happy. I think I’m a pretty amazing singer but if you ask any of my sisters, they will laugh hysterically at that. So how about we don’t ask them?

I bebop around my little pad in happy mode. I sometimes dance around because I can, and apparently, it’s good exercise. You could say I’m a pretty happy girl for the most part. I’ve come a long way in my 50 something years and I can honestly say that I’m the happiest I’ve been in a long long time. Life is good.

But………

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Even happy people have bad days :( 

It’s not like this for me all the time. It’s not like this for everyone all the time. We ALL have our down days. I’m even going to go out on a limb here and say that I bet Dr. Wayne Dyer, Rhonda Byrne, Les Brown, and others just like them, have down days too. Mm-hmm.

I bet my last dollar they do. I also bet they practice mindfulness techniques too!

We are just wired in such a way that we feel all kinds of emotions, right? Happy, sad, angry, and even downright evil. I wonder if the evil thing only occurs during pms? Anyway, I can’t ever imagine or believe that no one ever has a bad day or sad, down thoughts.

Impossible I’d say. I’m hoping someone can prove me wrong on that.

So how on earth do we deal with these times without wanting to pull out all our hair (remember I really love my hair) or worse, stab someone in the eye (though that may just be a hairstylist thing)?

How do we get through these days without wanting to just curl up in a ball on the couch with a blankie, the curtains all closed, and secretly hoping that the person that just pissed you off would just go away and never be seen again? Ever!!

Well. It’s possible. Not easy, but possible. And yes, the ways I’m going to share with you are, in fact, quick.

So what exactly is mindfulness anyway?

To put it simply, mindfulness is the practice of staying in the present and being totally aware of the small things around you in order to not be sad or angry about yesterday and not worry about tomorrow.

If that makes sense.

It’s about living in the moment, and yes that can be hard to do and releasing concerns about things you cannot control. You can control your mind and that’s the most important step in mindfulness.

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5 mindfulness techniques to help you chill the eff out

1 Breathe

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Oh come on, right. Really? Breathe? That’s all you got, Iva? Well yes and no. There’s breathing and then there’s breathing. So Iva’s breathing goes something like this.

Close your eyes and picture your higher power, whether it be God or an Angel or some vision of love and peace to you. It will look different for everyone right? My visual is God, cloaked in a white robe, with a beautiful light all around Her (haha) smiling down on me.

She’s blowing glittery gold pixie dust on me and I’m breathing it all in.

That’s my breath in. My breath out is the visual of the person that I want dead, er, I mean the person who really just made me mad, sad, angry whatever and I am blowing them out of my mind and soul. They are floating away like dandelion fluff on a windy summer day.

I keep breathing like this til they are no longer visible to me. The harder I breathe out, the faster they disappear. (Please don’t hyperventilate in order to make them disappear faster. That will surely backfire on you. ) This exercise sometimes only takes up to 5 minutes max.

I love this mindfulness technique as it takes me out of anger and into peace.

I really love this mindfulness meditation by The Mindful Movement on YouTube. I listen to a lot of their stuff. I hope you like it.

2 Truth Letter Time

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This will literally only take about 5 minutes because you are going to be writing furiously and fast!! A truth letter is getting out absolutely everything that is pissing you off right now. Don’t hold back anything! GET…IT…OUT!!! When you’re done, read it, then burn it. Or if you’re fire phobe then tear it up in a million pieces and trash it.

Trust me when I tell ya this feels soooo good!

3 Music Time!

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I know this sounds too obvious but it works. I often will put on the loudest most headbangingest trash metal song and sing, or should I say screech at the top of my lungs. It’s wonderful relief and when I’m done I usually end up laughing my ass off. Picture skinny little big curly-haired 50-something lady thrashing around to metal music and screeching?

Ya, it’s kinda hilarious.

4 Cry Dammit!

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Yes, I said it. Cry.

I’m not sure why some of us are so afraid to break down and just cry. I like to refer to it as *detoxifying*. You know, out with the bad jujubes and in with the good ones. Crying releases negative fluids that are trapped in our bodies. Ok so maybe that definition is a little far-fetched but it works for me.

Try it. Stop fighting the tears. Get a good cry on and see how awesome you feel after. This is one of my favourite mindfulness techniques. Feel your emotions and don’t be embarrassed by them. Own them.

5 Road Trip Anyone?

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I love doing this. Often when I feel down I’ll grab my car keys, and my ipod, and away I go. Driving really relaxes me. Unless I’m driving in the city and then road rage sets in and oh my Lord let’s just not go there right now. But no really, once I hit the highway, there’s a delightful peace and calm that comes over me.

I can think more clearly and whatever was troubling me is usually gone within half an hour. It’s lovely and quite possibly one of my favorite things to do.

I find this is one of the most effective mindfulness techniques because you have to focus on the task at hand, driving, and not your problems or anger!

More mindfulness techniques for you!

I’m an avid reader and I love to sniff out good articles on self-help. Yup, even I do that. I found this great post from psychcentral.com on a few 1-minute mindfulness techniques that are pretty decent!

1 Minute Mindfulness Exercises

I think it’s important to always try to practice mindfulness, especially when we are having a meltdown or just a really bad day. It can be so easy to stay stuck in a rut or a bad mood. The longer we stay in that dark place, the harder it is to climb your way out of it.

These are just a few of the things that I find myself doing that work wonders. For the longest time, I used to hide my emotions and always put on a brave fake smiley face. It wasn’t until I started working on self-improvement a few years back that I discovered that you can own and honor your feelings, and your emotions.

ALL of them. Identify them, deal with them, and move on. The liberation you will feel from this is amazing.

What’s your pick-me-up trick? Share with us! Do you have mindfulness techniques that work well for you?

Peace and Love

Iva