Many people ask me how to start a meditation practice or how to be mindful. The key is to improve the mind-body connection and to increase awareness. The way to do this is to wake up your senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. Many of us are so caught up in our thoughts, we don't even notice the world around us. We miss the beauty of the sky—the brilliance of its colors, the mystery of the clouds. We don't even hear the birds around us singing. 

Mindfulness has been defined as 'paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non- judgmentally,' by Jon Kabat-Zinn. One of the best ways to increase attention is to heighten sensory awareness. When we are aware of what is happening now, both within us and around us, we are grounded in the present.

Here's a favorite exercise I offer my students to learn how to be mindful and to prepare to start a meditation practice.

I call it "Circling through the Senses."

Start standing or sitting. Close your eyes. Breathe deeply, feeling the body as the breath flows. Draw attention to the floor or chair beneath you. Feel the pressure of your body against it. Shift your weight gently forward and back and side to side. Settle in a balanced upright posture, feeling at ease. Notice all you feel through touch - clothing textures, air temperature, breezes, even breath in the nostrils.

Next, shift your attention to sound. Without strain, let sounds fall on your ears, open and hearing—sounds of humanity and sounds of nature. Avoid focusing on any one specific sound, but rather experience the symphony of sounds all around you. If thoughts or feelings come up, note it and return to sense observation.

Then, relax muscles around the eyes and softly open them, without fixing your gaze on anything in particular. Take in light, shadow and colors around you—the rich visual palette. Experience the variety of hues, the gradations of saturation. See if you can feel the warmth or coolness of the colors around you.

Return attention to the breath and open awareness to all of it—senses, thoughts, feelings—all that is happening in this moment. Be fully present, right here and right now.

For a 2-minute Guided Breath Awareness Meditation, check out my podcast here

You may be wondering how to begin mindfulness meditation. To learn how to be mindful, you need to be present.  So you ask, how to be more present? To be present, you need to cultivate awareness. So, how do you improve awareness? You use your SENSES. This exercise shows you how to begin to expand your awareness by cultivating your senses.

Through the guided mindfulness meditation below, I introduce mindful awareness. This exercise improves your attention and focus, and helps you to simply be in the present. By anchoring in your body and breath and focusing on what you experience with your senses in this moment—in each moment—this is how you start being mindful.

This simple, easy to do, exercise enhances mindfulness and is an excellent preparation for a meditation practice. I am trained in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program and am a certified meditation and yoga teacher. You may think that to start meditating you need to jump immediately on to a cushion. I have taught thousands of people over the years. The best way to begin is to start small and increase your awareness steadily. I invite you to enjoy.

You can practice this wherever you are for a few minutes every day...on the train as you commute, in your office, in your home, wherever you may be.  Sharpen your senses, feel your breath, really experience where you are in this moment here and now.  

In this video I'll lead you through a guided meditation exercise. 

Or listen to my podcast below.

Click here to listen to my podcast on Apple Podcasts.

PRODUCT PICKS THAT YOU WILL LOVE