My Journey into Being More Mindful

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What is Mindfulness and how can we be more mindful in our daily lives? Who am I and what do I know about Mindfulness? My name is Kristin, I’m not a therapist, counselor or trained professional. My experience is purely personal and from the client side of mental health. Being More Mindful is about my journey learning what it takes to be more mindful about my every day tasks.

Being More Mindful is strictly through my experiences, not professionally, only personal. This site is dedicated to what I’ve learned and how I use my skills to cope through my own stress and anxiety. Mindfulness is not just for someone who deals with mental health, it’s for everyone who wishes to find better ways to cope with difficult situations like stress and anxiety. Everyone experiences stress to some level. Whether it be from work, family, relationships, friendships and so on. It can creep up quietly or hit you like a ton of bricks. Mindfulness has helped bring me back to living in the moment, focusing on my surroundings and grounding myself.

I spent most of my life making quick decisions that often amounted to pain and poor experiences. I was not being mindful about many of my thought processes.

So how did I learn about mindfulness and make changes in my life? It started when I joined a group, DBT, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. I'll admit, at first this group annoyed me. I was realizing just how much I needed to work on myself and that felt like an incredibly daunting task. Within Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, there is the topic of mindfulness. I learned a lot from DBT but I took a lot home with me regarding mindfulness. What I came to love, was just how practical mindfulness was and how wonderfully useful it was towards making every day tasks more enjoyable and relaxing. I learned that you can practice mindfulness quite easily if you put your mind to it. When it comes down to it, there’s always a good, practical time to exercise mindfulness. While you’re cooking, exercising, working, shopping… You can always find a moment for some helpful mindfulness. Mindfulness is about slowing down, being in the moment, experiencing your environment to the fullest using your senses – touch, sound, sight, smell, and taste.

Here I will be sharing my journey and what I learn along the way. I will make mistakes, I will falter but I will do my best because I know trying matters and I've already learned first hand what mindfulness can do for me. I hope what I share can help you too.