The term "mindfulness" can encompass a whole lot of stuff. The idea is to become more self aware. To live more in the present. It can just be stopping during the day and breathing, focusing on your body, relaxing your mind, finding gratitude, etc.
There's a great meditation my WH got that says to imagine being in a completely black room, and when your mind wanders to watch the thought just pass by, and identify it as a thought, and let it drift along past you w/o any focus on what the thought is. I imagine them as ghost-like wind passing by, and I'll say in my head: "oh! there's a thought. Goodbye" .
I use a free app for my phone called insight timer. It has guided meditations and unguided,male or female voices, music or no, etc. Lots of choices. I really notice a difference when I don't do it (I can get grumpy if I miss more than a day or 2). I tend to do them at night before bed (which is a high trigger time for me), but the morning is also helpful (I just tend do do the PM more than AM).
Yoga is also a great way to increase mindfulness. You have to focus on your breath and your body/pose, not all the other stresses of life. There's stuff on youtube, but I seem to be old school by still having a DVD player. I have one that's like 10 or 15 minutes, and a bunch of others for exercise. There are studies of the benefits of yoga on trauma / PTSD. As a BS with two PTSD Dx (the LTA and then the suicide attempt), I can provide anecdotal evidence that it helps.
Even just stopping for a minute several times a day can provide some benefits of mindfulness.
Ten times a day my apple watch reminds me to breathe for 1 minute. Again, a way to focus on the present and your body, and who doesn't have a minute for some quick self care?
There are solid studies showing mindfulness and meditation can rewire the brain (the neurons that wire together fire together), increase focus, productivity, etc. My IC recommended the book "Resilience" by Rick Hansen and it really changed my life. You can google his HEAL steps for the basics (it's really about emphasizing the joyful MOMENTS of our lives, getting those neurons to fire, and building resilience & better coping skills). I recommend the whole book (I got it on audiobok and still listen to it).
Starting a gratitude journal can also help. It can feel silly at first (I remember some bad days early on when I'd be grateful for kleenex, so I could wipe the snot from all my crying), but as it becomes more of a practice it can build & reinforce those good neural pathways.
Anyhow, that's what I got off the top of my head. Being consistent in a daily practice of some sort (even if it's just writing those three things you are grateful for on the back side of junk mail) can really change one's view of the world (and it - literally - changes your brain).
[This message edited by gmc94 at 1:10 AM, October 5th, 2019 (Saturday)]