The coronavirus pandemic is disrupting every aspect of life including exercise routines. You know the adage Healthy Mind, Healthy Body. Now, it is even more important to maintain health, to keep your weight in check, support mental health through stress reduction and improve your quality of sleep. Maintaining regular exercise results in several benefits:

1. Exercise helps free up your mind. Something as simple as going outside and taking a walk, where you stay at least 6 feet away from others, can be a great, safe way to stay healthy. (The CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings.) If your schedule allows, try to exercise early in the morning. Even if you just work out on the treadmill for 15 minutes in the morning, you will feel rejuvenated. This gives you time to think, to plan out your day, which is very important.
2. These times may have you drinking more alcohol. Consider doing some moderate-to-vigorous physical activity; it has been shown to help reduce the use of alcohol and other substances.
3. Another very important benefit of regular exercise is that it helps keep diseases at bay. While the blood is pumping throughout the body, you are also rejuvenating your immune system—physical activity releases endorphins, chemicals in your brain, which revitalize your mind and body. You not only are healthier in body but also in mind—helping you to think better.

These are just three of the many benefits that regular exercise provides. Invest a small portion of your time to exercise—especially during these unprecedented times, you cannot afford to downplay its importance in your life.

There are many ways to combat stress, which is known to affect the mental health and well-being of individuals. According to the United States National Institute of Mental Health, “stress is how the brain and body respond to any demand. Any type of challenge—such as performance at work or school, a significant life change, or a traumatic event…” Undoubtedly, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the lives of all Americans. An American Psychological Association survey reported “70% of adults in the United States say they feel stress or anxiety daily.”

There are numerous benefits to reducing and managing stress. Mindfulness, which has been studied for many years, is one method that has been shown to support physical and mental health resulting in stress reduction. Daily, we are pulled in many directions with work, family and school. Learning how to build mindfulness into your everyday life doesn’t have take a lot of time. Starting a mindful practice for even 5 minutes a day can help you avoid feeling overwhelmed or overly reactive to certain situations or events.

What is mindfulness? It can be summed up as having an awareness and focus on now—this present moment; Greater Good Magazine offers a detailed definition. Practicing mindfulness can be accomplished in many ways. We have outlined some steps and tips, curated from 5 articles, to guide you towards reaping and understanding the benefits of adopting a mindfulness practice. These benefits include the ability to strengthen your memory; to help reduce pain; to improve sleep; to create thinking flexibly; and to help weaken prejudices. Maintaining a mindful meditation practice has also been proven to restructure or affect the architecture of the brain. This causes stress reduction; increased focus; reduced emotional reaction; enhanced intuition as well as many health benefits that range from better immune function to higher brain functioning.

Mindful Seeing

Mindful seeing encourages visualization for a healthy imagination by simply looking out a window with a view. PositivePsychology.com details the steps for mindful seeing (and 21 more mindfulness exercises, activities and techniques) as:

Step 1: find a space at a window where there are sights to be seen outside;

Step 2: look at everything there is to see. Avoid labeling and categorizing what you see outside the window; instead of thinking “bird” or “stop sign,” try to notice the colors, the patterns, or the textures;

Step 3: pay attention to the movement of the grass or leaves in the breeze. Notice the many different shapes present in this small segment of the world you can see. Try to see the world outside the window from the perspective of someone unfamiliar with these sights;

Step 4: be observant, but not critical. Be aware, but not fixated;

Step 5: if you become distracted, gently pull your mind away from those thoughts and notice a color or shape again to put you back in the right frame of mind.

Practice Mindfulness at Work

Forbes offers 4 great tips that are easy to put into practice while at work, including picking a mantra or positive message to repeat to yourself throughout the day.

Ready to get started? There’s no better way to stay in this present moment using mindfulness techniques to help reduce stress and improve your health.