Mindfulness

It cannot be stressed enough the importance of controlling the voice in your head, and Mindfulness is one of the more recent successful techniques for doing that.

Technically, Mindfulness is the psychological process of deliberately focusing one’s attention on experiences that are happening in the present. It is most successful when done without judgement, expectation or prejudice. Primarily, one practices Mindfulness in order to reduce emotional disturbances or physical pain. The most commonly used techniques are meditation, raising awareness, focussing on breath and, to some extent, movement. When your heart is firmly connected to your mind, you can find joy in everything you do.

It’s about coming back to the present in every activity. So in some sense it’s a little like Zen Buddhism. Zen uses total absorption in any activity, without giving it any meaning, to create focus, until it becomes a form of meditation. If you are worrying about what might happen, you are in the future – and if you feel guilty about what has happened, you are in the past. Technically, you can do nothing about either one because one has passed and the other has too many other stakeholders – plus it may not even come to pass. So, there is absolutely no point dwelling on either.

How to do Mindfulness

As already said, the main technique is meditation. In mindfulness meditation one is seeking to identify every current physical state one is experiencing. Focusing attention on the different parts (the heel, the side, the breath, hearing etc.) of our bodies allows us to completely return to the now. The breath is another simple way to come straight back to the now. Three focussed breaths and you should be right back in the present.

Ultimately, the aim is to be able to carry these techniques into everyday life so that worry (attachment to the future), guilt (attachment to the past) and overwhelment (when we catastrophize to the point of overload) are replaced with ease, grace and acceptance.

Prior to the current surge in Mindfulness practice, Eckhart Tolle established himself as an authority in the area with his book The Power of Now. Being mindful is understanding how we have habituated being everywhere other than in the very act or experience of what is happening. Mindfulness is about agreeing on techniques and practical approaches to reducing stress and attachments to negative impressions of life’s little challenges, which should simple be accepted without giving meaning to them. Yes, we are meaning making machines… Stop it!

Mindfulness and Pain

Another great use of Mindfulness is in using it to deal with, and manage, the psychological effects of chronic pain. Go into the pain. What is it trying to say? What are the sensations? Where do they start and end? Is there a sadness around it – or, is my heart heavy about it? You may find the pain lessen. Is it that easy? Can I think the pain away? Will everything turn out ok?

These sorts of questions, posed to a still mind can make all the difference to endless suffering and a manageable ailment. Buddhists have been using Mindfulness as part of their basic work, they just didn’t talk about it much.

This has been a brief introduction into the understanding of Mindfulness.