How to Move from Knowing to Doing

Reflecting on My Mindfulness Journey FoR World Mental Health Day

Since last month was World Mental Health Day, I’ve been reflecting quite a bit on mine. I realised how profoundly mindfulness has reshaped my life. It's been 8 years since I first encountered the practice of being present without judgment, and it has helped me make such deep and meaningful changes that I often wonder how I would be coping today without it.

Thinking back to how I was a few years ago, I was trapped in an endless cycle of chasing the next job, task, holiday, or project, mistakenly believing that these achievements would bring me happiness. I was constantly "in my head," living in a future I imagined would be better, yet missing the present, which was far from happy.

This pursuit of the ‘next thing’ (which felt relentless to be honest) left me feeling exhausted and my mental state was fragile and deteriorating. I now know that I didn’t feel safe enough to relax, or to just be. I couldn’t do it. It felt really uncomfortable.

Then practicing mindfulness showed me this realisation: the inner peace I craved was always accessible to me in the present moment - not some distant future. It was right here, waiting for me in every moment, but it required my trust to truly access and embrace it.

It took practice, but these days I trust in the now. I trust that I am okay, that I am safe, and that everything is fine. Regardless of what is going on around me. This trust has allowed me to embrace each moment, notice my breathing, and truly feel alive - the biggest reason to celebrate.

My journey of embracing mindfulness hasn't been smooth. It's been filled with difficulties and some struggles and has required guidance by mentors, teachers, and coaches. But it's a path I am so profoundly committed to and today, I am grateful for having started my journey of inner discovery and acceptance in those dark moments.

Practical Tools for Embracing Mindfulness

With that in mind, I want to share three practical tools that have been key in helping me find inner balance and contentment.

1. Daily Mindfulness Meditation

This practice helps anchor you in the present moment, training your mind to engage with the here and now rather than a hypothetical future or past regrets.

What happens when we meditate is that our mind wanders off. Constantly. It worries about later, tomorrow, next year! And it will go over and over past conversations or events, trying to make sense of them. So the practice of mediation trains the mind to return to NOW. Which is the only place that life exists. It re-connects you with the present so you can fully experience life.

It sounds simple but it’s not necessarily easy because your brain is very good at thinking and distracting you with thoughts.

So my suggestion is to start with just 5-10 minutes a day. Find a quiet undisturbed place, close your eyes, and gently take your attention to your breath.

Notice the sensation of air entering and leaving your nostrils, or the rise and fall of your chest as you inhale and exhale. When thoughts intrude, as they will, gently acknowledge them and return your focus to your breath.

And each time you notice that your mind has wandered off, bring it back gently with kindness to your body, your breath, the present moment. Repeat as necessary. 100 times if need be.

This is how you become present.

2. Gratitude Journaling

I’m sure you’ve heard about the power of journalling. There are a million ways to do it. But I like to make it my own so I feel connected it to it.

Find what you need to use journaling for. It might be to write your thoughts of the day down on paper before you go to sleep.

Or a way to increase self love by writing something you appreciate about yourself from the day.

By connecting to the sense of gratitude we soften anxiety as both states can’t co-exist.

Each day, write down three things you are grateful for. This could be as simple as a delicious cup of coffee, a warm conversation with a friend, or a sunny day. Gratitude shifts your focus from what's missing or unachieved in your life to the abundance that is already present. Over time, this practice cultivates a mindset that finds joy and thankfulness in the now.

3. Mindful Walking

Meditation doesn’t have to just be sitting quietly, you can become present with yourself while cooking, showering, eating or walking etc...

You can incorporate mindfulness into your daily walk by firstly intending to be present rather than scrolling through your phone or planning your day.

Bring your attention to your body. Notice the feel of the ground under your feet, the sounds they make and the sounds around you, the temperature of the air, and what you can see. This can gently guide you to appreciate the simple joys of life.

I like to take each of the 5 senses and notice one by one what’s present there.

This practice is good for the body - even walking 20 minutes a day helps to significantly reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, according to Dr. I-Min Lee, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School - and it deepens the mind/ body connection which gives you greater awareness of your bodily sensations and emotions, which creates a deeper sense of presence and calmness.

How to Commit to Your Mindfulness Practices

There is so much information out in the world for you to access, so the difficulty here is not what to do. It’s actually doing it - how to do it, how to keep doing it.

But perhaps more importantly than what you’re doing is how you approach it, how to think about it, how to connect with it, and how to do it even when you don’t want to.

So, the first thing is to get clear on why you’re doing something. You might have read these three starter practices that I’ve shared in this post and think, "Yeah, that sounds great. I want to do that; they make sense." But I would invite you to spend some time writing down:

Why you want to do them?

What is it that’s drawn you to trying something different?

What’s not working in your life right now that you feel you need a new technique for?

Once you’re clear, you’ll be more connected to the practice because it means more to you. You can understand the depth of why you want to try in the first place. It’s not just another thing on your To-Do list to tick off every day; it’s now something you want to do because you know why you’re doing it.

Another thing to consider is where will you be in 3 months time, having done that practice every day or three times a week? Imagine yourself in three months time, saying to a friend,

"Hey, I’ve been doing this practice every day for three months, and it’s really…”

The other element to consider is what are the main barriers that might get in the way of you doing this, even if you are clear about the benefits it's going to have? Life gets in the way of everything. There’s always something else to do and a million distractions and demands on our time - family, friends, children, work, and just day-to-day living.

So you have to prioritise your practices. The people that feel the benefits of these practices make time for them, and that’s what you have to do. You have to make time to do them, even if it’s five minutes a day, 10 minutes a day - there is no way that you can say you haven’t got five minutes in the day to do a practice. It’s down to whether you prioritise that five minutes and you make it happen at some point in the day.

This is really an act of self love. We only need discipline when it’s difficult and we don’t want to do something. Bringing some self love to this whole process is really going to help in those challenging moments.