1. Start a Gratitude Journal– writing down only 3 things you are grateful for every morning can have a great impact on your day and on your life overall. Sometimes we fail to acknowledge the many great aspects of our lives, allowing us to take things for granted. Your list could include major things such as being grateful for your spouse or job or even little things like books and coffee. It really doesn’t matter as long as you’re being mindful of that person or object’s presence in your life.

Challenge #1: Tomorrow morning when you wake up, grab a pen and paper and write down three things you are grateful for.

2. Brain Dump– this is initially setting a timer and writing down everything that’s on your mind. This may be tasks you need to accomplish, creative ideas or even emotions. Having to keep all of that information in your brain is somewhat taxing, therefore by externalising it you are releasing your mind of the need to remember and the stress of forgetting.

Challenge #2: Set a timer for 15-20 mins and write down everything that clicks in your mind, take your time while doing this and let things come naturally to you rather than trying hard to focus.

3. Learning more about food– one thing we all need to do in 2019 is to be more mindful of what we put into our body. This involves reading the ingredients list of the foods we buy and listening to how our bodies feel after taking certain foods. Being more conscious of our food will also help us to improve our energy levels.

Challenge #3: The next time you go grocery shopping, read the ingredients list of the products you buy and that day, write down each one of your meals and your energy levels (out of ten) after eating.

4. Declutter– this allows us to be more mindful of the things we buy and also helps to declutter our mind. Decluttering is a whole process in itself, but you can always start small. Perhaps start by decluttering you office area or closet, if an item doesn’t bring you joy or you haven’t used it in the last month, it’s probably time to let it go. You can choose to donate the items if they’re still reusable or pass it down to someone else.

Challenge #4: Choose a small area in your home to declutter and take out some time to declutter the space. It might be hard at first but it’s definitely worthwhile.

5. Digital Detox– taking out some time to spend without our devices or the internet is essential to calming our mind and being more aware of our surroundings. We often forget there is a world outside of our screens.

Challenge #5: Schedule in one hour or two and turn off all your electronics (perhaps you should notify a few people before doing so). You can choose to spend this free time reading or going out in nature. You may find this process almost addicting and next time you’ll try it for a whole day.

I hope you enjoyed this post and if you have your own techniques in mindfulness, feel free to comment them down below.