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According to an Aviva report, working from home can make it worse with almost half (44%) of UK employees feeling like they never fully switch off. Here are our 4 best tips to help you practice mindfulness and live a happy, healthy life while working from home.

But first, what is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is all about making positive changes in life by simply being in the moment. It means knowing directly what is going on inside and outside of ourselves, moment by moment.

Studies have shown that mindfulness can improve your mental wellbeing. If you’re looking to make easy, healthy lifestyle changes without completely changing your routine, our top tips to start practicing mindfulness at home can help.

1. Try meditating

Picture this: it’s been a long morning of Zoom calls, and you have a spare 20 minutes before your next call. If you’re wondering how to have more energy to make it through the rest of the day, then meditation could be the answer.

Meditation is great to include in any lifestyle change program. It can help you to ‘check in’ with yourself, whether you’re trying to reach your fitness goals or to develop positive emotional habits.

To get started, all you need to do is find a comfortable space, sit still, close your eyes and focus on your breath. Your mind may wander, but try to bring your focus back to your breathing and notice the way your body feels. If you’re worried you may miss an important call, then you could schedule this down time into your calendar.

2. Practice mindful eating

Food is often one of the keys in developing a healthier lifestyle. Many of us eat at our desks, where we absentmindedly finish our food quickly because we’re distracted by our screens.

This can make eating feel like yet another chore, another addition to our to-do list. If you’re working from home, then why not try to make the most of it and plan time to step away from your desk for lunch.

Mindful eating isn’t about nutrition changes, it’s about taking the time to be present while eating, so you can really enjoy your food. Eating while not distracted means you can slow down and take smaller bites too, which is great for digestion.

3. Go on mindful walks

Going for a lunch time walk is one of the best healthy lifestyle habits to pick up, so why not incorporate a mindful element to your daily walk?

As you head out, leave your phone and headphones at home. Instead, focus on the things around you: the sounds, the sights, the way the wind feels on your skin, the smells. How does it feel under your foot as you’re walking? How does your body move?

Walking doesn’t always have to be about setting fitness goals; instead, you can try focusing on the way you interact with your environment, putting yourself at the centre of it.

4. Creative activities

There are many mental health benefits to creative activities - it’s one of the top activities on the list of lifestyle changes for anxiety sufferers.

Studies have found that colouring, drawing or writing can help people relax and sometimes accept past traumatic experiences.

You may have watched satisfying colouring or calligraphy videos online - so why not pick up a pencil or crayon yourself?

You don’t have to be a gifted artist to get the most out of mindful colouring and drawing: just focus on the sounds the tip of the pen makes, how it feels in your hand, or even the way the colours look on paper and how they complement each other.

There are many adult colouring books out there, some of them with a specific focus on mindfulness, and they’re a great way to get started on your mindfulness journey.

Cheryl Culliford-Whyte Content Contributor, Warwick Sport

Cheryl has interests in all kinds of fitness, keeping healthy and looking after your wellbeing. She enjoys hiking, lifting and healthy baking.

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