r/Mindfulness

Hey everyone,

I’ve been dealing with a lot of stress lately and noticed it shows up physically (especially neck and shoulders).

I started doing very short exercises during the day (breathing + light stretches), and it actually helped more than I expected.

Now I’m curious: What’s the simplest thing that helps you relax quickly?

Would love to try new things.

Hi everyone, u/Alan-Foster here with an update to r/Mindfulness.

I believe everyone can agree that the tools we have to filter out AI / Advertising spam just really aren't working. We still get 5-10 advertising posts per day which accounts for about 20% of the content in the subreddit. It's pretty bad.

Starting Sunday, April 5 2026 (Easter Sunday) we'll be testing out a new App called Hestia that I've been working on for nearly a year. It was designed to support mental health subreddits with seeding conversations, but this week I taught it to detect advertising and spam posts.

I've tested it on nearly 500 posts already, so it should work *reasonably* well. Probably. Maybe. I hope you will all be patient as we work out any problems it may have during launch. If it goes well, you can expect to hopefully see it used by other mental health subreddits across Reddit.

We'll see if it makes a difference. Thank you!

about three years into a daily practice. the thing nobody tells you is that consistency changes what you're willing to tolerate socially, and not always in ways that feel good.

I used to be fine going out, making small talk, staying at parties late. now I leave early. not anxious, just done. I notice a pulling sensation in my chest when conversations are just noise and I've started trusting that signal more than the social obligation to stay.

the weird part is I'm not unhappy. I actually feel calmer than I ever have. but my social circle has gotten smaller and some old friends have definitely noticed. I keep wondering if this is meditation working or if I'm using "mindfulness" as an excuse to avoid the messiness of human connection. anyone else gone through this?

A lot of us think we are not good enough. It sounds cliché, but I've found that, unfortunately, it's a large part of what drives us, and at the same time, it's what makes us feel vulnerable or hurt.

Society has taught us to constantly compare ourselves to others: who has the better job, the better body, more friends. It becomes automatic so much so that we may not even notice it. We look at others and feel insecure about where we're at, maybe we feel like we're falling behind.

But I've found that through mindfulness, we can learn to live in a new way, without these endless comparisons, and it's much more freeing.

I remember those who gave me this advice: Don't get distracted by the noise, just focus on your own work and do the best you can. When we stop comparing ourselves to our ideal standards of who we should be, we're actually a lot more lighthearted and easy to be around. I've found that only when I started to love myself as I was could I begin to truly change.

I've been writing articles like these for a while, just for myself as a sort of journaling exercise. Today I decided to start publishing them here. Please let me know what you think and I hope it will be of benefit to someone :)

-

You always think the next thing will make you happy and complete. A relationship, more money, a new career, a new business, a new hobby, a new lifestyle, a trip, a new city. It's always the next thing that will finally be the pivotal moment, the moment after which everything will be downhill, roses and sunshine, every day. Happiness and joy all around.

But it's this exact thinking that keeps you feeling unfulfilled and unhappy. Because embedded in this belief is another belief: that you are incomplete and unable to be fulfilled right now. You're not allowing yourself (or rather, you think it's not possible) to enjoy your life as it is. Something is still lacking. The moment, and you, are not yet complete. The moment and you are really the same thing (we don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are). And so you keep telling yourself that until you find that last piece of the puzzle (the relationship, the morning routine, this new habit that’s going to change everything - whatever you're obsessed with at the time) you cannot fully sink into your life and enjoy what's actually here.

You will never find the missing piece. Because there is no piece missing.

There's nothing holding you back from enjoying your life right now. Life is going to be an unbroken stream of "nows," just like this one. Sure, there will be peak experiences, moments of absolute bliss and excitement, and there will be incredibly difficult, painful lows. But 99% of your life is going to look somewhat like this. Thoughts, feelings, sensations, pleasure, pain, confusion, boredom, small joys, minor frustrations.

What will change your life drastically is to stop living for the future. To stop feeling incomplete until you finally find the missing puzzle piece. To sink into your life right now. Because the only way you can be happy is right now. And if you're not happy right now, you never will be. So you have to learn how to be happy now, which is just a skill you can develop.

You have been misled, taught to believe that happiness and contentment lie in the future, when you finally have your life together, when you finally have that perfect relationship, the perfect job, the perfect lifestyle, perfect friends. You will never arrive at this moment. And if you do, it will only last a while. Everything in life, good or bad, brings new problems to solve. And above all: even when you finally do get the thing you were postponing your life for, you still won't have developed the skill to enjoy and fully experience life in the present moment, the only place where enjoyment actually happens.

This isn't bad news. It's good news.

Because once you realize this, you can finally let go of the entire project. You can learn how to be happy and content right now. You learn to enjoy and appreciate your experience as it is, the only thing that's actually real. You learn to enjoy your cup of tea, reading this text, the temperature of the room, the sensations in your body. Maybe you’re playing some music you like.

This is the skill you need to develop, in a world of uncertainty and a relentless chase for the next high. And as you practice, you'll start enjoying and appreciating your life more. You'll discover what you actually like and dislike doing. Then you'll start doing more of what you like, and less of what you don't. You'll slowly create a life filled with things, people, and activities that you genuinely enjoy, and you'll know how to appreciate them. You'll start inviting things and people into your life out of joy and love, instead of lack and craving.

Start today. Do one thing you like, even for just five minutes, that doesn't have any future benefit. Just enjoy the thing.

Good luck.

I want to say that yes i feel wow moment as hitting jackpot in inner space where the internal commentary is running on.

Not exaggerating. One page. I'd get a few lines in, put the book down, pick up my phone, realize I had no reason to, put it back, and repeat.

I've known my attention span is bad but seeing it happen in real time was kind of embarrassing.

I started timing myself just out of curiosity. like, how long can I actually go? Turns out the answer was pretty depressing at first. We're talking 4, 5 minutes before I'd unconsciously reach for it.

The number going up over time is the only thing that's actually motivated me to keep trying.

Anyone else been tracking this? Would love to know if I'm alone in the 4-minute club.

Today is “Seimei” in Japan — a time when everything becomes clear and alive.

Nature naturally finds its balance.

Maybe we don’t need to force it.

When I return to the space between inhale and exhale,

I feel it again.

Not too much. Not too little.

Just… Anbai.

At first, you see nothing, blackness. Yet, if you continue to observe, you begin to "see" something else. Areas of light begin to appear, swirling and changing shape. The images appear in varying shades of gray, with some areas being very bright or appearing as flecks or slivers of light. These are called phosphenes, which, translated from the original Latin, means "light show". Phosphenes are created by random electrical stimulation of the brain's visual cortex, that is, your mind's eye. You are, literally, looking at your own brain's activity. And as long as you observe, you do so in a state of no thought. However, if you continue to observe, another part of your mind goes into action.

One of the brains main functions is to gather and analyze sensory data. And even though your eyes are closed, the brain still gets input from the visual cortex. It tries to correlate what it is seeing into something it can name, in the same way that you might try to find, to recognize a thing when you look at clouds. Once this has happened, the brain generates a cascade of useless thought. The vision of the phosphenes becomes blurry and fades, replaced by irrelevant mind movies.

So then, the key is to recognize when this happens and quickly switch your attention back to the phosphenes, to the state of no thought.

If you were in an unfamiliar darkened room, it might take awhile to find out where the light switch is. However, the more times that you turn the light on, the faster and easier it will be to find the light switch. So, find the switch that brings you back in to presence. Learn to recognize the change from no thought to thought. Don't judge yourself for not being able to maintain the mindful state for very long. The more times you find the switch, the faster it will become second nature. And, the ability to stay in that state will increase automatically.

Make sure to not only be aware of the light, but also the darkness, the nothingness from which the light arises and recedes into. For there could be no light without the darkness, and no darkness without the light.

If you can maintain this practice, one day you will achieve something wondrous. You will be able to attain the state of mindfulness...with your eyes wide open.

A few days ago, I reached the end of writing a 107K first draft for a novel I intend to publish. I’m UK-based, 18yo, and dropped out of sixth form around nine months ago for mental health reasons. Since then, loads of stuff has happened - some good, some bad - but ultimately, I feel better. I think I’ve healed from such a dark phase of my life, and achieving something as nice as a completed draft is something I’m proud of. :)

But now, I’m faced with a problem: I need to put space between myself and the manuscript so that I can edit more objectively come three months time, when I will return. But I feel so guilty spending so long doing nothing.

However, I thought I’d put a little message up here for myself, but for others too in a similar situation - that is, it’s okay to take a break. I’m nervous, because other than the occasional tutoring job, I have no thorough income for the time being… however, I’m gonna keep searching. I’m gonna keep looking for vacancies in jobs, keep submitting applications, and until I can find one, well there’s nothing I can do about it. I’ve just gotta wait it out, and there’s no reason to feel such guilt, simply for having time to relax like this.

So many people in this world are so damn busy, working so hard, finding no time to rest, and meanwhile here I am struggling to get employed, still heavily supported by my parents, with all the time in the world - and, the guilt is pretty heavy sometimes, but ultimately, it’s not necessary. Relaxation is okay!

Haha, maybe I’m bad at hiding that this is encouragement for me more than anyone else 😆 but, I do mean it all the same. This is Reddit, of all places, so I imagine I’m not the only one - if you’re reading this, and you’re in a similar place, then I hope you’re doing okay. You’ll find your way. But in the meantime, don’t beat yourself up over what you have no control over.

Sorry for the ramble! Everyone, take care.