When I first came across mindfulness and meditation, I was dubious to say the least. Being a cynical bastard who hates hippies and generally doesn’t believe in any religion, I thought mindfulness was just something people said they practiced in order to look like they believed in something, like crystals and chakras and all that other stuff.

I also assumed you needed to go on some Buddhist retreat or at least into the depths of the English countryside to be able to enjoy its practice. After all, here in the modern world we have so much to distract us like the fact that Robot Wars is making a comeback or the very irritating knowledge that the new iPhone won’t have a headphone port. Super annoying.

But in fact, it is these distractions that makes it even more of a necessity. For those of you who don’t have a clue what I’m on about, mindfulness is basically a type of meditation that enables you to control your thought patterns and behaviours. It’s a way to declutter your brain and in short, it can totally change your life. Here’s why:

1) It Frees You From Your Brain

You might not have noticed this up until now, but most of us are completely trapped by an incessant and constant stream of unconscious thought.

Don’t believe me? Just take a break from reading this and notice what your brain is thinking. See how your mind can literally jump from what bagel you are going to have for breakfast to wondering what your high school crush is up to? Well, basically, it’s these thoughts that make us humans quite a depressed bunch at times.

Not to worry though, that’s just the way we have been conditioned. And luckily, mindfulness meditation can massively help with this.

Try sitting for ten minutes a day just listening to that stream of thought. Let the thoughts come and go, without taking any one more seriously than the other. This way, you sort of become the ‘watcher’ of your thoughts, rather than being consumed by them. My advice is to do it in the morning as it can help you not sweat the small stuff and you can just sail on through to work like an absolute G.

(Use the arrows below to navigate through the slides)