How to Use Mindfulness to Calm Your Mind

Mindfulness is the awareness, the deep awareness of our actions as we are doing 
them. Mindfulness is something that we all have and we can all use, at any time. 
However, it can be difficult for people who lead busy lives or who think quickly.

Children Love Meditation

Children, even the crazy, ADD children, love practicing mindfulness and meditation. It 
makes sense to kids because they all love to give focused attention to whatever they 
are doing. Kids love the power and the "peace at ease" presence of both meditation and 
mindfulness. Once you have taught your children (or the children who you teach) to 
practice meditation, you can easily explain mindfulness to them. Mindfulness is an 
ability to be a state of active meditation and focused awareness while you are doing 
certain tasks. When the children you teach understand meditation and are able to 
practice it frequently, they will pick up mindfulness more easily.

Men Can Practice Active Meditation

Men, on average, have more linear thinking, which prevents them from having a 
distracted mind or a mind which tries to multitask. While some men may find this 
frustrating, this also gives them a definite edge in the mindfulness trade. Allowing their 
thoughts to be "light" and "clear" greatly reduces their stress levels, while also putting 
them into a more childlike, innocent state of mind. This simple, clear thinking particularly 
suits the way men think and they perceive and interact with their world.

Women May Find Mindfulness More Difficult in the Beginning

Women have more connections between their right and left hemispheres. This means 
that they are naturally programmed to switch back and forth between creative and 
logical thinking efficiently and without any difficulty. This also gives women the 
supercharged ability to multitask, keep track of a wide variety of things at one time (such 
as work, boss, coworkers, children, husband, car, home, AND the dog). This also 
means that women are far more prone to NOT use lists or to-do tasks on their phone or 
in a notebook to keep track of their thoughts so that they are free and able to be mindful 
about each of their individual activities. Women would do well to remember that, just 
because they CAN keep track of everything in their mind, it does not necessarily mean 
that this is the best option for most of their day. Mindfulness can be achieved only 
through concentration on a single current activity, and this cannot be fully, 100% 
accomplished if you are remembering to-do lists in your mind, rather than on paper.

The mind is at its calmest and most peaceful when it only thinks about and focuses on 
one thing at a time. This is what makes practicing mindfulness so powerful. Be sure to 
set reminders for yourself throughout the day so that you can remember to bring your 
mind back to a state of calm awareness on its current activity and start building the habit 
of continual mindfulness all day long.

