Finding Harmony in Your Every Day Life

Finding Harmony in Your Every Day Life

Life can be turbulent and stressful at the best of times, and these days, it’s not exactly uncommon for people to feel as though they are being swept off their feet more or less 24-hours a day, and seven days a week. If you’re desperate to regain a sense of balance and finding harmony is a priority, it’s important that you actually make some changes that can lead you away from the constant feeling of being overwhelmed.

So, here are a few tips for finding harmony in your everyday life.

Finding Harmony By Eliminating Negative Habits

Often, when we are stressed, we will turn to unhealthy “bad habits” as a way of helping to curb the negative feelings, and to “calm ourselves down.”

Of course, if you are turning to habits such as drinking or smoking in order to regain a sense of balance, you are deluding yourself – because the short-term feeling of “relief” that you get is always going to be fleeting. This short-term gain will come with various harmful side-effects that will ultimately leave you feeling pretty awful, down the line.

Consider swapping out some negative habits with more positive relaxation techniques. 

That could mean something as straightforward as switching out your smoking habit for a temporary vaping habit courtesy of Vsavi equipment.

In the longer term, though, look into the benefits of regular exercise, holistic routines such as yoga, and walks in nature – things that have been consistently proven to aid relaxation, in addition to various other benefits.

Finding Harmony: Filter Out The Ever-Present Noise

Life is really noisy today, which is a major source of the stress and turmoil that we all typically feel on an everyday basis. It is certainly something that I struggle with from time to time, hence my determination to reduce digital noise especially. According to the famous Norwegian explorer, Erling Kagge, one thing that the modern world really lacks is opportunities for “silence”, by which he doesn’t just mean “a lack of sound.”

The kind of “Silence” that Kagge is referring to includes things like shutting off the stream of information and distraction that comes from scrolling through social media on your smartphone, for example.

When you allow yourself opportunities for daily silence and stillness, your thoughts can get an opportunity to calm down, and you can free yourself from the constant sense of panic that comes with always having to consider and deal with different forms of media and mental input, day and night.

Embrace Planning and Preparing in Advance

Stress massively expands when you are unprepared and have to try to scramble to deal with events “on the fly.”

Instead of constantly falling this way and that in order to try and get a handle on the latest drama that presents itself to you, work to plan and prepare everything in advance, as much as possible.

If you know that there is nothing to eat for breakfast, and you know that this might cause you to have a mini freak-out tomorrow morning and grab some unhealthy junk food on the way to work, take a bit of extra time in the evening to prepare yourself a nutritious meal, instead.

The less often you are caught by surprise, the more harmonious your life will feel. Finding harmony, peace and a good amount of quiet is key to a happier more balanced life.

3 Tips for Taking a More Mindful Approach to Life

mindful

One of the weirdest paradoxes of our times is that we are more materially comfortable than ever before, with technology allowing us to lounge around on the sofa for endless hours, in perfectly temperature-controlled environments, and with an endless array of interesting TV programs to watch on demand — but that, at the same time, we are apparently more stressed and anxious than ever before. With this in mind, we may all benefit from a more mindful approach to life.

For all the benefits that may come with a highly technologically-developed way of living, we also have to shoulder constant “static”, distraction, comparison to others, and so on. Finding the time and space to just relax with our thoughts and enjoy our immediate environments, has become increasingly difficult.

24/7 we’re comparing ourselves to our friends on Facebook, we’re gossipping on Twitter, we’re worrying about the latest news headlines, and we’re trying to absorb endless small information bites in the form of online articles and more.  The worrying thing is, this only describes the modern pressures that come with being digitally connected!

Finding ways to regain a more mindful approach to life can be very important in terms of our ability to unwind appreciate the moment. I completed a mindfulness diploma back at the beginning of the year and I have to say that I am glad I did. I was a very in-depth course and opened my eyes to mindful living.

Here are some suggestions for doing just that yourselves….

Dress More Mindfully

Take a more deliberate “quality over quantity” approach to your wardrobe. Many people deal with clothes in a pretty mindless way. They’ll grab whatever’s cheap and on sale, they’ll fill their wardrobe with all kinds of things they don’t really like, and they’ll feel vaguely discontented with their personal fashion. By “they”, I used to mean “me”. Taking a more deliberate, “quality over quantity” approach to your wardrobe can be a great way of reconnecting with the clothes you wear, in a mindful manner. Taking to time to inspect a stylish new ladies shirt collection and pick out a garment that really works for you, is better than buying 4 shirts cheaper shirts that don’t suit you. Consider how an item feels when you put it on, and how it makes you feel.

Consider Using a Fountain Pen to Write With

Most things that need to be written are typed, these days, and for those things that still get written out by hand, we’re more generally inclined to use cheap disposable ballpoint pens than to go to all the trouble of using a fountain pen. There are some good reasons to consider using a fountain pen to write with, however.For one thing, a fountain pen is almost a work of art. It’s an elegant device that can last you for years. It requires more attention when writing, and can produce much more attractive handwriting.There’s a whole ritual to using a fountain pen, from choosing the type of ink, to writing with intent. Writing with a fountain pen just makes the act of writing more meaningful. If this appeals to you, you might be interested in my book review of The Joy of Mindful Writing.

Reduce Your Screen Time

Use tools and services to help prevent you spending too much time online. The internet is a valuable resource, but it can absolutely be over-used, and when it is overused, you can find yourself falling through an endless abyss of clickbait headlines, videos, and memes. Use tools and services such as Cold Turkey Blocker to limit the time you spend online. With your new-found offline time, read more books instead. With a book, you get a much deeper, slower-paced, more engaging look into a subject than you do by skimming the web. Find great titles and reviews on GoodReads (web and app).

What do you consider a mindful activity? What would you like to do less of or more, to reduce the noise all around us and focus more on what is important, and what is going on around you?