5 Mindfulness Reminders You Can Use to Be More Present in Daily Life

Mindfulness reminders, or awareness triggers as I often call them, are a great way to help ourselves be more mindful in everyday life. Insight Meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg famously said, “Mindfulness isn’t difficult. We just need to remember to do it.” I have found mindful reminders to be a great way to encourage a return to mindfulness during the day.

What is a Mindfulness Reminder?

Simply put, a mindfulness reminder is something we use to remind us to be mindful! It may be a reminder or alarm we set, or we can use a specific activity during our day. Whether you meditate in the morning or at night, or not at all, you can bring mindfulness to your everyday life with these reminders. We set a clear intention in the morning to be mindful any time X or Y happens. When we do said action or have that experience, we pause and tune into our experience. This offers a bit of structure and a way to remember to be mindful throughout the day.

You can do this with any number of things during your day. I’ll offer a few suggestions below that have worked well for me and for students of mine, but feel free to investigate for yourself. You can also check out Chapter 26 of my book Practicing Mindfulness where I cover this topic if you have the book handy!

Awareness Triggers to Try

1. Changing of Postures

   This is one of my favorite awareness triggers to use, and the way this practice was originally introduced to me by a teacher. Throughout our days, we are constantly changing postures. Whenever your posture changes, take a moment to be mindful.

   Examples of changing postures are moving from sitting to standing, standing to walking, or seated to lying down. I especially like this practice as it really gives me the opportunity to settle into a new experience. When I sit down at my computer to get work done, I can pause and bring some mindfulness to the myriad thoughts that arise related to my work. When I move to stand up, I can pause and feel the body, the leaving of my work, and the new part of my day starting.

2. Phone Ringing or Buzzing

   I know a lot of us keep our phones on silent nearly all the time, but if you don’t you might give this one a try. Any time your phone goes off, take a moment to pause and be mindful. You might take some deep breaths, feel the body, or just notice the mental reaction to the phone buzzing.

   I personally find this one to be difficult and a beautiful practice in workign with automatic reactions. We are often a bit Pavlovian in our responses to our phones. It buzzes and we pick it right up. Seize the opportunity to pause and notice the craving or clinging, the automated response of the mind and body, and any emotional experience that arises.

3. Daily Hygeine

   Whatever your daily hygeine routine is, it offers a great way to return to the present time experience. It could be when you brush your teeth, shower/bathe, wash your hands, go to the restroom, brush your hair, and/or drink water. You might consider starting with just one thing and begin incorporating the others.

   These little mindfulness reminders work well because we do them regularly. You can build a habit out of your mindfulness. I also enjoy brushing my teeth mindfully especially as it is one of the first things I do when I wake up in the morning and one of the last things I do at night. It helps me get my day started off with a little bit of awareness before I even meditate, and go to sleep witha moment of mindfulness.

4. Joyful Moments

   This is a practice first introduced to me in Buddha’s Brain, a lovely book by Dr. Rick Hanson. In the book, he points out that the brain naturally gives a little more weight to “negative,” or difficult emotional experiences than pleasant ones. This is a product of the natural instinct to survive in our brains and bodies, and nothing personal. In order to re-train the brain, we can bring concentrated awareness to the moments of joy in our lives.

   With a little bit of appreciative joy, we can pause and really take in and appreciate these moments of joy. Feel how the joy feels in the mind and body in these moments. It might be something small like enjoying a sunset or watching your child play. Whatever it is, make some effort to allow space for the joy for a few moments. Don’t cling to it; it is impermanent. But allow it to be there and felt.

5. Walking

   Finally, related to the changing of postures, we have walking. I can’t seem to go more than a few days without recommending walking meditation or some other form of moving meditation to someone. I love it. When we think of meditation we generally think of a still, sitting posture. But the Buddha himself recommended we practice walking meditation. And if you spend any time on a meditation retreat or at a monastery, you’ll find walking meditation to be an important part of the practice.

   You might find yourself walking around your house, walking from your car to the store, walking from the bus to work, whatever. Use your time walking as a mindfulness reminder. Be present with your body as you move across the ground and through space. Feel the feet on the floor, the muscles working, the torso moving, and how it feels to be moving!

As a bonus, I recommend checking out https://awakeningbell.org/. It’s a super simple website that’s great for people who work at computers all day. I have it open pretty much all the time when I’m at my computer. Coming from the Thich Nhat Hanh tradition, it is simply a bell you can set to go off at regular or random intervals to remind you to be present. As it customary in their monasteries, I generally take three deep breaths every time it goes off! It’s a great reminder to be mindful that often catches me by surprise, and I strongly recommend giving it a shot!

For short little mindfulness-based thoughts, follow me on Tiktok or Instagram. You can also find my podcast, Guided Meditations & Talks, on your favorite podcast player or YouTube!