---
title: Mindfulness Practice on a Daily Basis
date: 2019-01-11T22:26:25Z
modified: 2023-02-28T14:05:55Z
permalink: "https://newdirectionspgh.com/counseling-blog/practicemindfulness/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 1015
categories:
  - Mindfulness
featured_image: "https://newdirectionspgh.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bigstock-Young-woman-at-home-sitting-on-74652109-300x200-300x200-1.jpg"
timestamp: 2023-02-28T14:05:55Z
tags:
  - Mindfulness
---

**Practice Mindfulness on a Daily Basis**
 David A. Morris, LCSW

![Practice mindfulness each day with the little things.](https://newdirectionspgh.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bigstock-Young-woman-at-home-sitting-on-74652109-300x200-300x200-1.jpg)

Practice mindfulness each day with the little things.



In the middle of the night, I was rocking my 5-month old son back to sleep. He was a fickle sleeper and my techniques were honed just right for his comfort. Then all of a sudden my nose had an itch. It was either maneuver my arms and hands to scratch my nose and wake him up OR deal with the itch in another way. I remember practicing earlier that day with a client informal mindfulness in which you look for opportunities in your daily life to be mindful of one’s experience. Instead of alleviating the discomfort, I tuned in to the itch and experienced it. The itch sensation peaked and then subsided.

I initially thought myself silly to be practicing mindfulness in this way. But I realized each day a plethora of discomforts cross our paths some mundane and benign like my itch, but others more significant like sadness or a migraine. Practicing on the “little stuff” can help train our brains to tolerate the big stuff.

Informal mindfulness is a great way to start retraining how you think and experience your day. It helps to remove judgment, interpretation, and historical experiences that may predispose you to a negative outcome.

_**Here are some solid principles for practicing and learning good mindfulness:**_

- Tune in to the moment-to-moment details of your current experience
- Set aside past memories of the experience or future expectations the mind starts to conjure
- Notice your body sensations and physical response to the experience
- Allow distractions to pass on by without engaging them
- Reduce your judgment of the experience

One thing I noticed as I tried to be mindful about my itch, was my mind’s wandering into the not-so-far distant future. “Will I wake him up?”, “What if he doesn’t sleep tonight?”, “What if by the time he is a 1 year old, I am still up all night soothing him?”. Thus the worry-fest plants its seed. As I remained non-judgmental and tuned in to the experience, those worry-based thoughts felt out of place and faded into the background.

For more help on how to incorporate informal mindfulness into your daily routine, spend some time with a New Directions counselor whom would love to walk alongside you in the process.