If you find yourself getting caught up in the hustle and bustle of a chaotic life, and if that happens every day (or most days, at least), then you might start to feel the effects when it comes to your health. When you’re juggling all kinds of tasks and responsibilities, struggling with stress, and generally feeling as though you just can’t relax, you’re going to burn out eventually, and that’s never a good thing to happen. 

So what can be done? There are a few answers to this question, but one that many people have found works is adding more mindfulness to their lives.

This might sound like something with no substance or basis to it, but there are scientific studies that say it works, so perhaps it’s something you’ll want to think more about. In fact, if you keep reading, you’ll discover a number of different ways that mindfulness can make you healthier, and you might find you can add them easily into your life. 

What Is Mindfulness? 

Before we can talk about how mindfulness can help you become healthier, it’s probably worth talking about what it is as well, otherwise you might not know how to add it to your daily routine even if you think it would work for you. 

In its most basic form, mindfulness is about living in the present, without thinking or worrying about the past or the future. You need to pay attention to your thoughts, feelings, and emotions, as well as your surroundings, and you need to be open-minded when you do. The idea is that you’ll slow down and relax, and that’s just the start of the benefits.

Here are some more. 

Stress Reduction 

One of the biggest benefits of incorporating mindfulness into your life is that it can help to reduce stress, and it starts working right away. Stress is a big issue for a lot of people, and it can actually lead to some serious health consequences, including high blood pressure, heart disease, a weakened immune system, and also mental health issues like depression and anxiety. It’s clear that chronic stress is not something you want in your life. 

The good news is that you can reduce it, and even completely remove it, when you’re more mindful. Studies have shown that learning to use mindfulness in the right way can reduce stress massively, and that’s for a few different reasons.

The first is something we briefly touched on above, in that mindfulness is all about being in the present. When you’re not worrying about what’s to come or things you already did, your stress levels will go down.

Another reason why mindfulness is good for stress is that you’ll be focusing on your thoughts and feelings, and you’ll start to understand what it is that makes you stressed in the first place. Once you know, you can avoid those triggers or put measures in place to deal with them (depending on what’s going to work best for you). 

Better Heart Health 

As well as lowering your stress levels, which is obviously an important thing to do for many reasons, mindfulness can also have a direct positive impact on your heart health.

Studies have shown that being more mindful (which can take many different forms, including meditation, listening to music, working out, doing a hobby, taking a nature walk, and so on) can lower your blood pressure, and when you have lower blood pressure, you reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease (otherwise known as heart disease). 

Of course, you’ll need to change other things in your life to make this long-lasting – mindfulness alone won’t be enough – but when you exercise regularly and ensure you’re eating a healthy, nutritious diet full of the right kinds of foods, you can give your heart the best chance of staying healthy for longer. 

Pain Management 

Chronic pain is a big problem when you suffer from it, and it’s something that many millions of people have to deal with every day worldwide. However, interestingly it seems as though mindfulness can help with this issue as well – so if you are someone with chronic pain, where it might be presenting, being more mindful might be something you want to try; it certainly can’t hurt, and it might even help. 

You can use some of the methods mentioned above, but some people find more structured therapy can help, including mindfulness-based pain management (MBPM) is extremely beneficial. 

Better Sleep 

Getting enough good quality sleep is vital for your overall health – both mental and physical – but stress can cause lots of problems in this area, and so can chronic pain, for example.

So, by practicing mindfulness every day (just a few minutes a day can be enough to help, although the more you do, the better the results will be), you should find that you can get to sleep – and stay asleep – much more easily. 

Of course, if mindfulness and de-stressing aren’t helping when it comes to getting a good night’s sleep, it could be another issue behind it, so make sure you see your doctor as soon as possible to find out and, if needed, start treatment as soon as you can. 

Hair And Skin Health 

Your hair and skin really show what your overall health condition is, so it’s wise to pay attention – if you have oily hair and pale, greasy, or dull skin, for example, it could be that there’s something else amiss. 

However, mindfulness can have a positive impact on both your skin and hair, so you’ll look healthier on the outside as well as being healthier on the inside. For example, when you’re less stressed, your skin won’t be so prone to acne and flare-ups, and you might also find it looks smoother and perhaps even younger.

As for your hair, when you’re less stressed, you’ll have less hair loss, which is a great start, but as well as that, mindfulness practices can help to encourage other self-care practices, so you might invest in specially formulated shampoo for very oily hair, for example, or a scalp massage, or anything else that makes you look – and feel – good.