Hi All
What is mindfulness, this is a question that has bugged me for a long time.
I have read all these articles on Google and they talk about being in the present moment, meditating, and breathing.
It just made no sense. I am not a monk nor do I know how to clear my mind.
I sit for countless hours and concentrate on my breath, but my mind jumps from one thought to the next, or the dog run past me, or a fly lands on my nose.
How am I to concentrate with all these distractions. Being this frustrated doesn't feel very mindful to me. What am I doing wrong?
I then remembered a phrase I read in the diploma course. "Mindfulness is the practice of not doing and just being."
So I tried one more time to meditate.
Yes, my mind again wander all over the place, but this time, if a thought came up. I think on it for a second or two and just let it pass. A fly landed on my nose. instead, of swapping it way, I noticed the feeling of it walking on my skin. I noticed the irritation it caused and I thought about what my reaction would have been if I acted on my frustration.
It hit me like a ton of bricks. This is what mindfulness is. You notice your thoughts and feelings and you decide what action you going to take.
Being aware of what is going on around you in the world and interacting with it in a non-harmful way. I then again worried about my actions being non-harmful but learned quite quickly.
Harm none is encoded in our DNA. Nature always strives to be in balance. If you listen to your heart and do not overthink stuff, we normally do the right thing.
Mindfulness is the ability to let your mind rest in the moment. It lets you expand your conscious awareness and it lets you regulate your emotions and feelings.
In the words of the new-age father of mindfulness. Jon Kabat-Zinn. "Mindfulness is not something we have to go find. It's part of us. We just need to discover it again. It's a way of life."
