How to be Mindful throughout the Day?

Meditating daily is one thing and being mindful throughout the day is another! Mindfulness is being present in what you are doing right now. Let’s check your mindful monkey, and see how much is it actually mindful!

Do you remember what sounds you were listening from outside the window when you were brushing your teeth this morning? The majority of people wouldn't notice these tiny things in life and these little things bring a little more to everyday life. Let me tell you what you were doing when brushing your teeth. Thinking about the upcoming meeting, or that acne on your face, or probably how will you spend todays night.

So how can you be more mindful throughout the day?

The most important thing is to be present and observe everything that is happening around you and controlling yourself instead of going into autopilot mode. Starting your day with meditation and continuing to meditate for very short times during the day will also increase your time being present throughout the day. Look what actually you are doing when you are cooking, driving, or spending time with friends or family. Be mindful of every little happening around you. your mind will obviously wonder, and that is its nature, but meditation is bringing it back to present and teaching hi to be there. This will take time, but meditating every day will improve this ability to be mindful every day. There are other tricks and methods you can apply to be mindful every day which we will discuss in this article.

What exactly is Mindfulness? And what are habits?

Mindfulness is the art of being present. It is easy to say but difficult to master. According to Charles Duhigg, author of an amazing book, ‘The Power of Habit’, almost all of our daily actions decisions are governed by habits. And the worst thing is that we don't even know this. We think we are making decisions about our lives. But most of them are the result of habits. And while you are making those decisions, your mind is somewhere in its own dreamland.

Mindfulness brings the mind to those decisions taken in the present. Mindfulness brings your mind to those decisions and you might change your decision just because it is not governed by the habit and you can think before making a choice, and make a smarter decision.

Mindfulness will allow enjoying every little thing happening in life. Combined with the acceptance that comes from meditating daily, you will accept those things and actually be happy.


The other important thing about mindfulness is reacting to something or someone. Even our reactions are governed by the habits, but when you are mindful, instead of your habits, YOU WILL REACT, and in a far better way than your habits.

So just being in the present can change your entire life!

How to be mindful throughout the day?

Now you know the importance of being mindful throughout the day. The next thing is how actually can you be mindful? The most important thing is to bring back your mind from wandering in the past or future, to be in the present. There are so many ways in which you can bring back your mind to the present. Here are the major ones:

Meditation. The best way is to start your day with meditation. Meditating first in the morning will help you initiate your day with mindfulness. Meditation is a very good refresher on your brain that will keep it in the present for the most time of the day. There are so many reasons why you should meditate in the mornings. I have described them in detail, along with other times that are helpful, in this article.

Anchors. Anchor is the second most important thing to bring yourself back to the present. You can set certain anchors throughout the day that will tell your mind to just relax for a minute, or observe your breath for some time, before you continue your work. This helps to be more mindful about what you are doing after that short breathing exercise.

Let’s talk about each of them in detail.

How often should you meditate to be mindful throughout the day?

Start by meditating in the morning. I would suggest you to meditate in the Brahmamuhurta. That is between 3:30 to 5:30 a.m. but if you are like me and not able to wake up that early, you can also meditate when you wake up. I would just say that do it as early as possible.

This meditation should be the major session that you do once in the day. (Though you can always do it more if you are free anytime.)

Now comes the mini meditations, or simple breathing exercises. This would normally last about 2 to 5 minutes.( But you can be flexible, more is better, but with quality) The anchors would remind you to do these mini meditations throughout the day.

I would suggest not overdoing on these mini meditations. 4 to 5 sessions are enough if timed perfectly during the day. And choose your own time. Experiment with different times and you will find the time that best works with you.

How to apply different anchors that bring your mind into the present?

So we have been talking a lot about anchors. Now let’s discuss what exactly are anchors and how to set them.

An anchor is something that reminds you to be in the present. And you can also use it to remind you about the mini meditation that you are going to do right now.

An anchor can be as simple as your reminder on phone for beginners. But I would suggest not to do that once you get the hang of mini meditations.

Some examples of anchors are:

• A phone reminder
• An object on your desk
• Some simple habits or chores like standing up from your desk.
• A call from someone.
• Arriving or departing from some place. Eg: home, office, etc.
• The leaving bell of your school
• The sound of the water getting filled in your bathtub or bucket, when you go to the bath.

It is difficult to pull your attention at first with these anchors. So I would suggest just keep a reminder on your smartphone. But later as you get accustomed to being a little mindful throughout the day, change your anchors to things I mentioned above. As you have already been practicing these mini meditations, you will start observing those anchors. Let me tell you they may look easy, but they are very subtle anchors. And there is no problem if you forget about the anchor even after seeing or hearing it. You will actually come to know that you were not mindful when you saw or heard the anchor. And automatically you will become more alert.

Mini Meditations and Breathing Exercises:

Mini meditations are small 2 to 5 minute exercises that will refresh your brain and bring the focus to the task at hand. As the name suggests, they are just like meditations.

There are a lot of mini meditations, I do the mini meditations given in the headspace. But you do not need any apps to do these meditations. So how can you do that.

• Put a timer for 2 to 5 minutes.
• Start with any position preferable, it does not matter if you are sitting on your desk or walking.
• Take 3 to 5 deep breaths and concentrate on your breath.
• Keeping eyes open or closed does not matter here.
• Try to analyse everything happening around you.
• Start noticing the things inside you now: thoughts, feelings, emotions, pain, etc.
• And after the timer beeps, gently come back to the present and observe everything around you for a minute or two.
• Go back to doing your daily task. 

This is the simplest of the mini meditations, I will be making a detailed article about all the types of mini meditations and breathing exercises and linking it here.

How to apply mindfulness to conversations?

Talking to people is the most common thing we do daily. Especially women, they talk nearly three times more than men according to some studies!! So it is important that you are present while you are talking. Most of the time we are wandering in thoughts when someone is speaking, and then we are blank about what to answer, just because we were not listening with concentration.

Conversation is another anchor, to remind you about being mindful. (You do not have to start meditating when someone tries to talk with you though!)

So, how can you be mindful in conversations. There are a few things that can help you here:

• Stop fidgeting. Many people have that habit of playing with their hair, or clothes, or many unusual things to keep their minds busy. But what it will actually do is divert your attention to the fidgeting thing instead of what the other person is saying.
• Listen before you reply.This is the most common thing that humans do. They start to think about what will they reply instead of focusing on what the person is saying. Listen carefully, think, and then answer. This will make your conversations a lot fruitful.

“Respond, don’t react”

How to make mindfulness a habit:

You now know that being mindful throughout the day is so helpful and you also know the ways to be mindful. And you will also start putting anchors and reminders to do the mini meditations throughout the day. But after a few days, the anchors will start to become hazy, and soon you will forget that you need to even be mindful throughout the day!

So what you can do is, make a diary, or mark in a calendar, the days you were able to see the anchors. If you are marking in a calendar, make sure that it is the first thing you see in the morning. This will remind you that you need to be mindful throughout the day!



Try doing these techniques and let me know in the comments, how have these helped you being mindful throughout the day. Or if you have any other suggestions, I would be extremely happy to put them in the article. SHare this article amongst your friends and remind them to be mindful throughout the day too! Tell them they are missing most of their life wandering in past or present! Subscribe to the blog to get updates of the articles that I upload in the future! Keep meditating, and keep exploring yourself!

-A Mere Meditator