3 Rare Mindfulness Techniques You Need To Know

The mindfulness techniques I am about to teach you aren’t about writing, journaling, breathing, or meditating (although you can incorporate these aspects into it). They come from your perception and awareness in your day-to-day life. 

As my favorite quote from Wayne Dyer goes, “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” My aim is that these 3 mindfulness techniques will do that for you. 

Although different tools can help us in the moment of crisis to soothe and come back to balance, when we work on the level of perception, the change we experience penetrates much deeper and becomes more fundamental. 

All 3 of these mindfulness techniques require you to be a little more aware, mindful, and conscious. 

It’s okay, if, while practicing them, you feel like the opportunities to use them pass by you. In the beginning, being more aware and conscious is a challenge if you aren’t used to exercising these faculties of your mind regularly. 

Don’t get discouraged. Just keep practicing. 

3 Mindfulness techniques 

1. Reacting vs. responding 

When you act unconsciously, you react. It means you don’t think about your response but act on a trigger or an impulse. 

When you react, you unconsciously give up the opportunity to choose your response. 

The experiences in your life aren’t the results of outside events but rather, your response or reaction to them. That’s how you remember them and memorize them. 

But when you practice a conscious response, you can always choose how you experience the event or a situation. 

What is required to practice this? 

Emotions come in handy here because they are powerful. When you feel that you are getting upset, frustrated, angry, or impatient, observe these emotions. Tell yourself mentally in your mind the word PAUSE. This is your indication to stop the negative thoughts in their tracks while asking yourself, 

How do I want to respond to this?

Or, 

What is the healthy way to respond to this?

2. Stay away from duality 

Among the 3 mindfulness techniques I am sharing with you, this one transformed my life in the most significant way. 

When I say duality, I refer to all your likes and dislikes, things you believe are right or wrong, and good or bad. 

Anytime you label something based on your preferences, it creates an emotional charge. If what is happening around you is good in your perception, your emotional state goes up. If you consider it bad, unfair, or wrong, it will go down. 

This creates an emotional yo-yo effect, and your emotional state is driven by what is happening outside of you. And what is happening externally is almost always out of your control. 

Your control is within. Therefore, I invite you to try something out in the next few days. 

When something happens, simply see it for what it is and try not to input your personal preference into the space. 

Here is a simple example. Let’s say you forget your keys or something else. Although it may be inconvenient, become conscious of your thoughts and choose not to be upset or frustrated. You forgot your keys. That’s the fact that you can’t change. How you perceive, respond to, and experience it is your choice.

Or let’s say someone says they can’t stand Taylor Swift, but you love her. Stay away from judgment and simply see it for what it is. They only said they don’t like Taylor Swift. How you respond to it, whether externally (by saying something) or internally (by thinking something), it’s totally up to you. Your experience is defined by how you ‘feel’ about something, not by what happened outside of you. 

Makes sense? 

3. The power of choice 

You are always choosing, the only difference is whether consciously or unconsciously. 

Among these 3 mindfulness techniques, the first was about reacting or responding. The third one, your choice, goes hand in hand with the first. 

Often, we live on default. The same thoughts that we thought yesterday, we think today and then again tomorrow. This, with no surprise, creates the same results, and this experience of repeated cycles makes us feel stuck in our healing and growth. 

The most beautiful thing about this mindfulness technique is that you can always choose something else. 

It doesn’t matter where you came from, what you experienced, or how you lived. You can choose, right now, something else. You can choose to do things differently. In this moment, you can choose new, empowering thoughts. You can move, get married, get divorced, quit the job, find a new one, start a business, become a monk, or color your hair pink. 

Isn’t that the most liberating and empowering tool available in your toolbox?

The only question is, “Do you want to choose something else?” 

In the next 24 hours, try this. Observe in your life things you would like to change, maybe some areas you aren’t happy with. 

Get specific and identify what it is. You can also write it down. 

Then ask yourself, “Considering I could choose to do this differently, what would I choose? How would I proceed, knowing there isn’t anything stopping me except my mind?” 

The moment you open your mind and look at different options and possibilities, your perception of the situation begins to change. 

That’s the beauty of our minds and perceptions, they are flexible, and we can adjust, retrain, and change them in any way we want. I encourage you to harness this power going forward. 

Which of these 3 mindfulness techniques is your favorite or could benefit you the most? I’d love to know. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below.