Mindfulness has become a popular form of meditation in the west.
Today, many counsellors and physicians teach or recommend mindfulness meditation as part of the management of stress, anxiety and depression.
So what is mindfulness and who needs it?
You might benefit from the practice if you’ve ever been lost in thought and ran through a red light, lost your temper and said something you regretted, had difficulty forgiving someone who has harmed you, or asked yourself, “What was I thinking?”
The practice seems deceptively simple, and most people think it’s just about being in the present moment. Some think of it only as a form of meditation that you might do for a few minutes a day.
The practice of meditation is just the beginning. The insights you gain in meditation and the attitudes of mindfulness will benefit you most when you apply them to the rest of your life: how you see yourself, others and your world; experience your emotions, consider your thoughts and respond to the circumstances and events of your life.
We might begin meditation by spending 15 or 20 minutes each day simply sitting in a quiet place in a comfortable position. We turn our attention to the natural flow and sensations of the breath without trying to control it in any way. This can be used as a safe and calming anchor to which we can return at any time.
We can shift our attention to sounds as they arise in our immediate environment – close by or in the distance. We simply attend to the arising and disappearance of sounds as they enter and leave our awareness. We don’t need to identify each sound. We are simply aware of them as they come and go.
We can turn our awareness to sensations in the body: the pressure at points of contact with our clothing, the ground or the chair; warmth or coolness; vibrations or tingling. If a sensation is too uncomfortable, we may shift our attention elsewhere to a part of the body that is more comfortable or back to the anchor of the breath.
With practice, we are able to maintain awareness and attention without being reactive: without aversion, clinging, judgment or identification. With time, we recognize that everything within our awareness is ever changing; nothing is constant – no sensation, no mood, no emotion and no thought.
We are able to attend to each thought as it arises without getting carried away in a train of thoughts or a story in the remembered past or imagined future. We can note thoughts as they arise, without judgment or identification, and let them go. We can do the same with the transient feelings and emotions that arise without getting caught up and carried away with them.
We experience moods, feelings and emotions but we are not our moods, feelings or emotions. We can see them as transient, temporary conditions like a mist, a fog or a shower. They pass through us or we pass through them.
When we are not mindful, we are lost in our thoughts or we identify with our emotions, saying “I am angry” or “I am sad.” When we are reactive and when we ruminate, we become enmeshed in our thoughts and carried away by our emotions.
We can be mindful when walking, attending to the sensations of each step, the sounds and pressures on the feet and the movement of the legs. This becomes a mindful anchor from which what we hear, see, feel and think arises in our open and accepting awareness.
Mindfulness only begins with meditation. When you apply the healthy attitudes of non-reactive acceptance, gratitude, compassion and mindful action to everything in your life throughout each day, you will discover a deeper level of peace, happiness and meaning.
