The Art of being Intentional

Written by Hailey Geldenhuis, Counselling Psychologist

We all know the importance of self-care in order to maintain a healthy mental state. Often, it becomes difficult to incorporate new techniques, activities and behaviours into our daily lives.

We often feel that it will take additional time; time that we don’t have as we barely have enough time for everything else as it is.

What if I told you, that you don’t need to add anything new to your already busy schedule?

All you need to do is rethink how you do your current activities. In other words, we need to change our focus from WHAT we do to relax to HOW we approach that activity.

Let’s shift the focus.

According to Marsha Linehan, Mindfulness is

‘moment-to-moment awareness’:

• Focusing on the present moment, not contemplating past mistakes or future worries.

• It is knowing what you are doing while you are doing it.

• Mindfulness is a way of paying attention to our bodies, minds and our lives in the present moment and to appreciate the here and now.

• It involves fostering a particular attitude: acknowledging our circumstances, as they are, without judgement, and without wishing for things to be different.

Mindfulness helps combat the feeling of not being present, being on autopilot, just going through the motions, daydreaming and overthinking.

Mindfulness can help reduce anxiety, burnout and depressive symptoms. The best way to use Mindfulness is to focus on your 5 senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste).

In terms of self-care, start by focusing on activities you already engage in and enjoy. For example, drink a cup of tea outside during your break:

• Drink your tea outside with the goal of self-care.

• Think to yourself, “this is my spoil in order to relax”.

• While drinking your tea focus on what you can see around you, what your mug looks like and what details you can see in your environment.

• Focus on the sounds you can hear around you.

• Take a few deep and slow breaths.

• Focus on what the tea tastes and smells like.

• How does the warmth of the tea feel?

• Concentrate on how your body feels, i.e. the sun on your skin or breeze in your hair.

Remember to also do these activities “one-mindfully”. This refers to the concept of becoming fully absorbed in one task at a time.

This means that multi-tasking needs to be reduced.

Enjoy your meal while using all 5 of your senses. For example, don’t check your emails while eating. You can incorporate these skills into you’re your shower or bath routine as well. Don’t rush through these tasks in order to just start the next thing and then the next. Shift your focus from “this is a chore” to “I enjoy this and this makes me feel relaxed”. It is all about being intentional while taking care of yourself.

I hope this new outlook will transform your life and your mind.

Take care.  

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To read more about Hailey and the services she offers, click on the link below. Read more