What to Do When Your Mindfulness Practice Stops Working

You have a mindfulness routine that makes you feel calm and regulated. Until something throws it off and your practices stop helping.

That morning meditation no longer relaxes you, journaling feels like a chore, and it takes more than three deep breaths to bring you back to earth. This isn’t a failing on your part. You might need to change how you approach mindfulness and adjust to your current life and needs. It may not look the way you’re used to, but trying new techniques will build you a collection of practices that you can draw from when you need to.

Why Did Your Mindfulness Practice Stop Working?

Your life isn’t static, so your mindfulness practice probably won’t be either. When you first notice your usual techniques aren’t working, you might worry. 

Is your brain broken? Are you doing it wrong? Are you actually fully healed and don’t need mindfulness anymore? 

It’s probably none of those things. And honestly, sometimes you do need a break from certain practices to reevaluate what you need most. Other times, you just need to adjust to what fits your current situation. 

New stresses in your life can disrupt your mindfulness practices, especially if you’re dealing with things like:

• Financial struggles
• Chronic illness or disability
• Hormonal conditions or changes, like PMOS or menopause
• Moving or changes to your living situation
• Caring for loved ones
• Changes to your job situation
• New changes to your relationships

Sometimes the struggles you face aren’t life-changing or permanent. But they still impact your mind and body. You might need a backup practice for times when your usual routine doesn’t help the way it usually does.

How to Create a New Mindfulness Routine

Even if you don’t notice your life changing, you might outgrow some of the practices you started with. That’s normal, and it can help to look at this as a chance to explore. 

Think about what you’ve enjoyed about your current practice or what’s been the most helpful to your needs. Have you enjoyed the quiet and peace of meditation? Releasing worry through journaling? The mental boost of yoga? If you know what already feels good, you can start looking for other things that give you that same feeling. 

It’s also worth taking stock of how your mind and body feel. Maybe you didn’t have anxious thoughts before, so you didn’t feel the need to journal. Now, writing down your feelings clears your mind and helps you release the mental weight. 

If your life has recently changed, factor in what you have the time or capacity for. If you don’t have time for a 30-minute practice every day, see where you can find pockets of mindfulness in your day-to-day.

What to Try When You Need New Mindfulness Techniques

You might not have to do much work to find your new practice. Sometimes, you just need a few tweaks to what you’re already doing. But if you do want to try something totally new, there are plenty of places to find it.

The way you practice doesn’t have to look the same as it does for someone else or match the typical advice. Just like how meditation doesn’t work for everyone, the same things may not always help you forever. Here are a few adjustments you can make to find out what works for you:

• Instead of sitting and closing your eyes to meditate, listen to soft music and take an intentional walk
• Journal using voice notes or jot down thoughts or updates in smaller pieces
• Color in a coloring book or doodle on paper
• Knit, crochet, or do another repetitive motor task
• Garden or spend time with nature and plants (yes, indoor plants count!)
• Bring gentle awareness to your daily activities (for example, notice how water feels on your skin and the smell of the soap when you wash your hands)
• Do a quick body scan 

If you’re not sure which practices will help you most, start by being gentle with yourself. Experiment with different ones and make a note of how each one makes you feel. If you find an activity you like, try adding it to your routine. 

Don’t stress if it doesn’t last forever, and don’t pressure yourself to make it permanent. Use it as long as it works, and keep any mindfulness techniques you’ve found helpful in your toolbox for later.

Time to Take the Pressure Off

Mindfulness is about bringing awareness to your body and how you’re feeling as you work toward a state of calm. It’s about seeing yourself without judgment and accepting yourself as you are in the present moment. The things that get you there will change as you and your environment change. Let your first step be experimentation and creating a mindfulness practice you can use through different cycles of your life.