3 Mindfulness Exercises to Use at Home

1. The Walnut Exercise

In this exercise, which is great for beginners, that you can practice at home. Ask yourself these few questions by describing and observing these things:

• The way the walnut looks

• How it feels

• How their skin responds to its manipulation

• Its smell

• Its taste

Focusing on the single object of the walnut is meant to bring the your mind to the present, to what is right in front of you.

2. Shower Exercise

In this exercise, prepare a shower, and rather than jumping in and doing your typical routine stop and think.

- Instead of asking your hair first, wash your face instead or instead of shaving last, shave first

Notice how that feels, what the water and soap feel and smell like, can you taste anything, notice was the water and soap looks like on your body and in the shower. 

3. Five Senses Exercise

All that is needed is to notice something you are experiencing with each of the five senses.

Follow this order of the practice

• Notice five things that you can see.

Look around you and bring your attention to five things that you can see. Pick something that you don’t normally notice, like a shadow or a small crack in the concrete.

• Notice four things that you can feel.

Bring awareness to four things that you are currently feeling, like the texture of your pants, the feeling of the breeze on your skin, or the smooth surface of a table you are resting your hands on.

• Notice three things you can hear.

Take a moment to listen, and note three things that you hear in the background. This can be the chirp of a bird, the hum of the refrigerator, or the faint sounds of traffic from a nearby road.

• Notice two things you can smell.

Bring your awareness to smells that you usually filter out, whether they’re pleasant or unpleasant. Perhaps the breeze is carrying a whiff of pine trees if you’re outside, or the smell of a fast food restaurant across the street.

• Notice one thing you can taste.

Focus on one thing that you can taste right now, in this moment. You can take a sip of a drink, chew a piece of gum, eat something, or just notice the current taste in your mouth or open your mouth to search the air for a taste.

After you've practiced these journal or meditate afterwards and see if you go through out your day with more awareness. 

Expectations

We all have our own expectations, it’s not something we really can deny. They can be necessary, unhealthy, anxiety producing, manageable, motivating, harmful, morale building, etc. Even the definition of expectations implies that it’s each of those adjectives I listed; a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future.

I want to touch on how the expectations we hold effect our perception of reality. When I feel like something is “wanted” out of me, my natural tendency is not wanting to actually do it, and I’d think many can relate. I’ve run into very few people who want to feel caged in, controlled, on a leash or limited. In relation to expectations, I feel as though that implies that you are destined to do, to be, to feel, or to think in a particular manner. 

Can I commit to fulfill expectations? I certainly don’t think I want to, in this moment. In fact the idea of such commitment is daunting. Which is why the skill of One-mindfully, is crucial to managing the anxiety. Nothing is being asked of me right now, in this moment, all of theses thoughts and feelings of entrapment are fictional. Letting go of what will happen, could happen, or might happen, is a challenge in itself, and it can be done. 

I’m a natural runner/avoider of feelings, and that’s the urge I manage with the help of DBT skills. I can sit here and try to figure out a generalized answer for each situation or each feeling, or I can do it one-mindfully, remembering that I just have to figure out how I feel and what I think in this moment, and let go of how I’ll feel a month from now, a year from now, etc. 

To quote Ernest Hemingway “Happiness in intelligent people, is the rarest thing I know”.

With that we think we have to figure out how to be happy or we have to fulfill the expectations of others or ourselfs to be happy, when in fact it seems as though living right now, for this moment is the rarest thing I do, or have seen others do.