Inside: 30 simple mindfulness activities for busy parents to fit into their days. This 30-day mindfulness challenge will help reduce stress and bring more presence to their days.

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Mindfulness sometimes gets the reputation of being woo-woo or out of reach for the everyday person, like you and me. Before I started practicing on my own and learning about the topic, I thought meditation and mindfulness were reserved for monks and people that meditate for hours on end.

We all know busy parents don’t have a lot of extra time on our hands!!

I hope that this post will squash those myths and show how you, (yes even you!) can practice mindfulness in your everyday life and you can even experience the benefits of a regular *short* practice.

Simple mindfulness activities can be completed throughout the day and can be completed in as little as 2-5 minutes.

For December’s Simplicity Challenge I have decided to complete a simple mindfulness activity every single day.

I have even put together a special calendar with all 30 activities and I want to share it with you! Download your FREE Be Mindful Month Calendar by clicking below:

>>DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE MINDFULNESS CALENDAR HERE<<

Simplicity Challenges

Before I get any further into December’s simplicity challenge, you’re probably wondering what a simplicity challenge even is….let me tell you!

During each month in 2018, I am focusing on a different simplicity challenge or mini SMART goal. So far I have practiced daily gratitude, meditated every day, moved my body for at least 15 minutes every day, and completed a no-spend challenge, just to name a few. Scroll to the bottom to see a list of all the challenges for the year!

It has been so encouraging to work through these challenges each month and share my experiences on social media and in my email newsletter. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook to stay in the loop! Or sign up for my newsletter below – I’ll also send you a copy of the SMART Goals Guide for FREE!

Now let’s get back to talking about the everyday mindfulness activities for this month!

What is everyday mindfulness?

There are many definitions of mindfulness floating around the internet. Just doing a simple google search will yield millions of search results. The definition that speaks the most to me is from Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of the mindfulness-based stress reduction program.

“Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.”

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I love the simplicity of this definition and how it touches on the three different aspects of paying attention:

On purpose,
In the present moment,
Non-judgementally

When I think of “everyday mindfulness” I think about practicing simple mindfulness activities during tasks like brushing your teeth or driving your car. We all do these things, almost every single day. But most of us are doing so mind-LESS-ly.

This means that we are operating on auto-pilot and not noticing what is going on around us.

How many times have you driven home after work, only to realize you have no idea what you saw along the way or whether or not you had to stop at a red light?

I know I have!

The purpose of practicing everyday mindfulness is to bring that awareness back into the present moment.

Now, let’s touch on a question that you are probably wondering, what is the difference between mindfulness and meditation?

How mindfulness is related to meditation

I am glad that you asked this question because it’s a good one! While mindfulness and meditation are sometimes used interchangeably, they are not exactly the same thing, but both are important.

Let’s first look at meditation:

Meditation typically refers to formal, seated meditation practice. There are many types of meditation—those that focus on opening your heart, expanding your awareness, calming your mind, experiencing inner peace, and the list goes on.[SOURCE]

Here are some examples from this article:

Breath-awareness meditation
Loving-kindness meditation
Mantra-based meditation
Visualization meditation
Guided meditation

Using an app like Headspace would be considered a formal practice, or meditation. This formal practice really helps you build up the muscle memory and skills to take mindfulness out into your daily lives.

Now, let’s take a look at mindfulness:

Mindfulness is all about being aware, which of course includes the practice of meditation. When you are being actively mindful, you are noticing and paying attention to your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and movements, and also to the effects you have on those around you. [SOURCE]

Mindfulness is more of an informal practice and can be performed anytime, anywhere, and with anyone, by showing up and being fully engaged in the present moment.

While both meditation and mindfulness are important aspects of a complete practice, this post and this month’s simplicity challenge are focused on the informal practice of mindfulness.

>> Note: Earlier this year I did a challenge where I focused on the formal practice of meditation. You can read more about how that looked for me by reading the post, Three Simple Goals That Will Help You Succeed at Meditation.

Benefits of regular mindfulness practice for parents

When mindfulness is practiced on a regular basis, research is showing that there are some pretty incredible benefits, even for busy parents!

Here are a few of the benefits listed in an All Meditate article:

Improved mental health
Better pain management
More alert
Less fatigue
Better emotional control
Improved patience

I know that as a busy parent I could use all of these things! I encourage you to check out the article for more details on how mindfulness can make an impact on these areas of your life.

If listening is more your style, The Mama Minimalist has a great podcast episode called “Mindfulness for Modern Families” that is worth a listen! She first interviewed Kim Fuller, a Buddhist and meditation expert, about the details of mindfulness and its importance. Stephanie then interviewed me to talk about the practicalities of busy parents practicing mindfulness in their daily lives.

Check out the episode here and download the FREE mindfulness toolkit as well!

How to practice simple mindfulness activities throughout the day

So now we know what mindfulness is and why it’s important for us as busy parents. Now let’s talk about how to actually fit simple mindfulness activities into our daily lives.

If you remember, we said that mindfulness can be practiced anywhere, anytime and with anyone. You can be practicing mindfulness and nobody will even know!

I have a couple of different ideas on how to incorporate mindfulness into your daily life:

Pick one activity that you do every single day and practice mindfulness during that activity.

This could be brushing your teeth, driving to work, or drinking your coffee. Doing the same thing every day will help build up the habit and allow you to use these mindfulness skills throughout the rest of your day.

The other approach is to complete a 30-day mindfulness challenge, like the “Be Mindful Month” challenge I am completing this month. More on this below!

This approach will provide 30 different ways that you can practice mindfulness during your day. When you feel like you are stressed about a situation or you’ve had it up to here with your kids (you know I have felt that way before!), you will have several different tools in your toolkit to pull from in order to center and ground yourself before you respond to the situation in a more controlled manner.

In either situation, the basics are to focus your complete attention on the task. You can use your senses to notice the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures of what you are doing. You can bring your attention to your breathing and notice any tension in your body. Whenever your mind wanders, simply acknowledge the thought and let it pass, bringing your attention back to the present moment.

30-day mindfulness challenge

This month’s simplicity challenge is to complete a daily mindfulness challenge that I am calling “Be Mindful Month.” I am excited about this challenge because we can all use some calm and stress reduction during the holidays….amiright???

Even though I completed this challenge during December, the challenge is not dated and you can use it any time of the year! So if you’re reading this article in February, you can still do this!! Just download the calendar below and get your mindfulness on!

The hope for this 30-day mindfulness challenge is that I will learn different mindfulness techniques to practice during my day. I hope to experience the holidays with more presence and full awareness of what is happening around me and not stress about my to-do list. And I hope to enjoy the time spent with my family!

Be Mindful Month (FREE Printable Calendar)

If you are ready to complete this mindfulness challenge, download the FREE printable calendar below!

You will receive a calendar with 30 different and simple mindfulness activities that you can do during your day, even as a busy parent! If an activity doesn’t apply to you then move to the next or repeat one that resonated with you.

I tried to pick fun mindfulness activities as well as activities that most of us do every single day. You should be able to find some activity from the calendar where you can practice mindfulness during your day!

If you skip a day, just pick up again the next day!

If you are on social media, you can use the hashtag #BeMindfulMonth. I will be sharing my experience with this challenge and I want to cheer you on as well!

Are you ready to try the Be Mindful Month challenge?

Don’t forget to download your free calendar full of simple mindfulness activities here and then leave a comment below to let us know you’re in!

December 7, 2018 by Tara | 1 Comment

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30 Simple Mindfulness Activities for Busy Parents (Free Printable Mindfulness Calendar)