Mindfulness and health go hand-in-hand, but what are mindfulness health solutions and what are some actionable ways to move forward with a mindfulness practice even if you’re really busy?
This post covers 3 of the best mindfulness health solutions out there. The solutions offer not only direct access to a more mindful life, but physical, mental, and emotional benefits that improve health and longevity.
Table of Contents
- The Problem:
- What is a Mindfulness Health Solution?
- Mindfulness Health Solution #1: Get in the Swimming Pool
- Mindfulness Health Solution #2: Temperature Change
- Mindfulness Health Solution #3: Mindful Eating
- Conclusion
The Problem:
- It’s hard to find the time to be mindful
- The connection between mindfulness and health isn’t clear
- You aren’t sure how to get started with mindfulness health solutions
What is a Mindfulness Health Solution?
A mindfulness health solution typically involves practices and techniques aimed at promoting mental and physical well-being that are implemented on a regular or semi-regular basis.
These solutions often integrate mindfulness into different aspects of daily life in order to improve over all health by reducing stress, improving emotional regulation, and enhancing focus.
Another way to think of this is that mindfulness health solutions give us small, daily ways to sink into the moment more often and with less judgment about ourselves and others.
How it works
Mindfulness health solutions involve focusing attention on the present moment without judgment. The “without judgment” part is really important and is what differentiates mindfulness from fixation.
We often get swept up in the moment, especially when emotions are running high. And we’re constantly making judgments about whether or not a situation is good or bad, comfortable or uncomfortable, fun or boring.
We respond to situations without actually identifying what we’re feeling or why. There’s good reason for this. The more our brains can streamline function and increase responsiveness, the higher our chances of survival in times of danger.
The downside to this is that our brains can’t easily tell the difference between being chased by a tiger and a stressful meeting with a boss.
UNLESS WE TRAIN THEM TO.
That’s right, you can train your brain and yourself to be more conscious of what’s going on around you so that you stop reacting. The key to this is non-judgmental awareness and analysis. And the more you practice, the better you get at it.
Mindfulness health solutions are one of the easiest ways to practice, and the best part? The practice itself is fun and restful.
Mindfulness is about letting go of judgments and simply accepting the moment. This includes paying attention to our breath, our bodies, and our experiences in a way that is free from immediate response unless an immediate response is necessary to keep you or someone else safe (think your child is struggling in the pool or you almost get hit by truck running a red light).
Benefits
What are the specific benefits of mindfulness health solutions and are they really worth all of the hullabaloo? In short, yes, yes they are.
First, mindfulness health solutions reduce the levels of cortisol in our brains, which reduces stress and anxiety and allows for better emotional control and long-term memory.
Cortisol is an important chemical that helps us do efficient work in crunch time, but over the long-term, it can be pretty damaging. This is one of the reasons that chronic stress is so dangerous. Mindfulness helps to combat the constant release of cortisol by redefining danger and stress in our brains, which leads to happier people and healthier brains.
And happy people make the world better.
Second, mindfulness health solutions can help you control mood disorders such as depression and anxiety, and improve resilience by providing consistent recharge methods throughout the day. I’m not saying mindfulness alone will fix depression (some of us need medication and that’s ok!), but it can be a powerful coping tool to help you.
Third, you’ll sleep better. Mindfulness actually reduces symptoms of insomnia and can help you relax into a more restful sleep.
Fourth, you’ll improve your cognitive function. This includes benefits like increased attention, concentration, and mental flexibility. In fact, reducing the amount of cortisol in your brain can help change your brain structure positively, promoting not just cognitive function now, but for the rest of your life.
Fifth, there are some very real physical health benefits like pain management and lowering your blood pressure and improving your immune system function.
Sixth, mindfulness helps with relationships with ourselves and others. It is easier to be compassionate, empathetic, and effective in how we communicate and understand ourselves and others when we are mindful.
I’m not saying mindful health solutions will fix everything in your life, but effectively incorporating them can help you lay a foundation to build on.
The combination of mindfulness and anti-depressants helped me deal with post-partum depression, and to create a happy and healthy relationship with my new baby.
Over all, a mindfulness health solution integrates connects mindfulness practices into your daily life to help you live longer, live happier, and accomplish your goals.
PS If you want to learn more about mindfulness in general, check out this post on
the 7 best books on mindfulness.
Keep reading to learn about practical mindfulness health solutions you can start today.
Mindfulness Health Solution #1: Get in the Swimming Pool
Getting in the water is a great mindfulness health solution. If at all possible, I recommend you actually go to a pool, but you can get a lot of these benefits from a shower, bath, or just running your hands and wrists under tap water for a few minutes.
It can be hard to find moments of quiet and focus, especially for women. There is a lot of pressure to be accessible and connected.
Going to the pool offers a profound escape from phones, obligation, and work. It offers a profound opportunity for mindfulness and holistic well-being.
First, water is an immersive sensory experience. Entering the pool allows you to embrace a total-body experience without judgment. You can feel the water slide over your skin.
You get to feel comfortable pressure and weightlessness simultaneously. With each stroke, kick, or step you have immediate feedback in the form of gentle resistance.
You can hear the water against the sides of the pool and you are never more aware of your breathing than when you are immersed.
Second, swimming, or even just water walking, naturally encourages deep, rhythmic breathing as you synchronize your breath with your movement. This act of focusing on your breath helps quiet the mind and induce relaxation during and after your swim.
Third, swimming encourages non-judgmental body awareness. The pool serves as a sanctuary for tuning into your body’s sensations. You can feel subtle shifts in muscle tension. The heightened awareness fosters a deeper connection between mind and body.
Fourth, swimming in particular, but water in general, promotes flow-state, a state of complete focus on the present moment. The more you swim, the more distractions fade.
There are no phones, no social media, nothing but you and the water as you go from one end of the pool to the other and back. You can focus on the long black line on the bottom of the pool and softness of the water as it supports you.
You can sink into the rhythm of your movements and breathing and let go of mental chatter.
Your mind might not be quiet, but at the very least thoughts will flow through it without judgment, allowing problems to unravel and insights to emerge.
Fifth, regularly getting in the pool trains your brain to be mindful and makes that state more accessible even out of the water. Part of this is that your mind has more practice being in the moment without judgment, but part of it is that you will more and stronger memories of being in a mindful state.
Not only that, but regularly unplugging, unwinding, and recharging in the water can soothe frayed nerves, reduce anxiety, and promote emotional balance. It gives you consistent recharge time which helps with building resilience.
Mindfulness Health Solution #2: Temperature Change
What if you don’t have time to get in the pool? One of the oldest methods of wellness is temperature change. Saunas and ice baths are steeped in tradition and backed by modern science as practices that offer a potent blend of physical rejuvenation and mental clarity.
I’m not saying you have to dive in a snowy pond or drive to the gym to use the sauna, but experiencing big changes in temperature has some huge benefits.
You can always use hot showers, cold showers, standing outside in winter, or laying under a tree in summer. Don’t be afraid to get creative and make it as easy as possible.
The temperature exposure doesn’t even have to be long. 5-10 minutes is enough to offer mindfulness benefits.
There is a lot of evidence that using a sauna regularly can have profound and positive psychological effects. Some general benefits include better sleep, improved ability to relax, and better stress management.
Let’s talk about heat
Saunas and heat in general is a great way to be more mindful. The enveloping nature of the heat triggers a cascade of physiological responses.
As your body temp rises, blood vessels expand, increasing circulation and delivering oxygen-rich blood to your entire body. This heightened circulation promotes muscle relaxation, accelerates recovery from exercise, and soothes aches and pains.
It also encourages mindfulness. It’s hard to be aware of anything but the heat when you’re in a sauna.
Let the heat draw your focus inward and try to be aware of the sensations your body is experiencing. Be aware of each bead of sweat and surrender to the temperature. Feel the heat in your nose an lungs and try not to judge it for being what it is.
Breathe through any discomfort and recognize that the heat will pass, just like all things pass. Allow clarity and calm and acceptance to characterize your experience with this mindfulness health solution.
Is the cold really worth it?
I’ll be the first to tell you that I hate being cold, but it is a powerful mindfulness health solution. Like saunas, ice baths (or even just cold water on the hands) offer complementary benefits to saunas. Plunging into icy waters triggers a physiological shock response known as vasoconstriction.
This rapid cooling reduces inflammation, numbs pain, and accelerates recovery from intense physical activity. There is also evidence that ice baths improve emotional health and reduce the risk of dementia.
There’s a reason the Fins are some of the happiest people on the planet.
Entering an ice bath demands an acute presence of mind and an acceptance of the moment. Dread does not help the experience, so do your best to let go. Recognize that the cold is temporary.
The cold magnifies every sensation for your body, which in turns promotes focus on what you are experiencing. Mindfulness becomes a lifeline in the intense discomfort. The more you focus on your breath, your pulse, you tingling skin, the less you focus on how uncomfortable it is.
This practice helps you to focus on reality in other situations as well, like if you have to give a presentation at work. You learn to identify what is happening, and not get sucked into your stronger emotional responses.
In both the heat and the cold you have very real physical responses that offer health benefits, but the intensity of the temperature itself promotes mindfulness. You learn to accept situations as they are, to embrace discomfort, and to be powerful even in uncomfortable situations, making this one of the best mindfulness health solutions.
Mindfulness Health Solution #3: Mindful Eating
This one is almost entirely new for me, though I’ve been giving it a go and really enjoying the results. Part of American culture is eating on the go. We eat and walk, we eat and talk. We eat and stream or scroll or read. Fast food is everywhere and hectic schedules are common.
Eating has sort of become a mindless ritual for a lot of us, myself included.
But eating can be a great mindfulness health solution that offers an antidote to a mindless consumption.
What exactly is mindful eating?
It’s when you bring full awareness and presence to the act of eating. It’s about acknowledging and savoring each morsel, engaging all the senses, and fully immersing oneself in the experience of nourishment.
I’ve had the most success doing this with coffee breaks. Instead of trying to be mindful every time I eat, I’m starting small by focusing on my afternoon coffee and a pastry if I’m in the mood.
By slowing down and paying attention to the present moment, I’ve definitely cultivated a specific moment of peace every day and a deeper connection with myself and the comforts that help me recharge.
Even just trying to be mindful during one snack a day has helped me identify and accept my eating habits and patterns over all, which has helped me break free from autopilot eating. It’s easier to feel when I’m hungry versus satiated.
This shift from reactive eating to conscious eating empowers us to make healthier choices and develop a more balanced approach to food.
As someone who has struggled with body image and tight calorie restriction in the past, this has been hugely helpful for my mental health and self-acceptance.
Another great benefit of mindful eating is a deeper gratitude for what we have. As we savor flavors, colors, smells, and even textures and temperatures, we are appreciating everything that brought that food to us. We are celebrating abundance and nourishment and our connection to others.
There are some clear physical benefits too. Mindful eating isn’t just a mindfulness health solution that’s about how we eat, it’s also about how our bodies respond to food. By eating slowly and mindfully, we give our bodies the time they need to function optimally, which allows for more efficient nutrient absorption and digestion.
We also learn a lot about how we respond emotionally to food. From an early age, we use food to self-sooth (think giving a bottle to a crying baby whether or not they are hungry). We have comfort foods and sometimes eating itself is comforting.
None of this is inherently bad, but it can get out of hand if we don’t acknowledge our emotional response to food. Mindful eating as a mindfulness health solution empowers us to do just that.
By cultivating non-judgmental awareness of the thoughts and feelings that arise before, during, and after meals, we can explore our own emotional landscapes. This allows us to identify triggers and responses and to develop healthy coping mechanisms.
Conclusion
Mindfulness health solutions is a holistic approach that can be utilized independently or in conjunction with other approaches to mental, emotional, and physical health. It is wonderfully flexible and affordable, and can be implemented by just about anyone. Mindfulness health solutions also offer profound benefits for mind and body.
They help us to cultivate moments of awareness, practice self-compassion, and manage stress and anxiety. All of this results in a longer, happier life and greater resilience. This paves the way for sustainable health solutions.
In other words, mindfulness health solutions can be a guiding principle towards a healthier, more fulfilling existence.
Which mindfulness health solution do you want to try? How will you add it to your schedule? Let me know in the comments!