Mindfulness is not a new practice. It is not meditation. It is not a religious practice. However, it does have roots in Buddhism. Since being introduced to the west in the 1970s/80s, it has attracted attention from the science world and sparked studies that have had a remarkable effect on the science community.
Mindfulness has been proven to improve health and wellbeing as well as some physical conditions such as psoriasis, multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia. This is profound. So, mindfulness is not only a mind state where you are fully present, paying full attention to the full experience of life, noticing what is happening and paying attention to the decisions you are making, it is also a great tool in unlocking the connection between health and healing.
Meditation can help us embrace our worries, our fear, our anger; and that is very healing. We let our own natural capacity of healing do the work.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Being in a mindful state is a fun place to be, a place of childish curiosity and a place where you can fully focus your mind on anything you want to. The reasons for wanting to do this will vary. Sometimes it will be to spend more time being playful and curious. Sometimes it will be to focus on an important task - giving yourself the best chance of success. Sometimes it is simply to devote more time and energy to feeling joy, replacing thoughts that wander to worry with awareness of what is happening internally and externally in that very moment. From the moment, we can best serve our immediate needs and it is only in the moment that we can fully embrace life as it is happening.
The good news about mindfulness is, that with regular daily practice, we can achieve all these things. We may also discover new and wonderful things about ourselves and the world around us, things that were always there but were hidden behind the distractions of daily
My friend Annette, said her mind is like a butterfly in a meadow, always busy. Be aware that our minds, like the butterfly in the meadow, can wander effortlessly from thought to thought, sensation to sensation and if we are not observant enough, we can get carried away to full and absolute distraction. This distraction may be awesome,;it may be unpleasant; it might even be a minor irritation or utter boredom. Whatever it is, mindfulness trains us to notice it, say hello and then pay no more attention to it than that. Like sounds that come and go, thoughts and feelings come and go. The aim of mindfulness is not to jump on the back of the butterfly and get carried away, but to be a passive observer of our thoughts. Noticing them but not focusing our full attention on them.
Life consists only of moments, nothing more than that. So, if you make the moment matter, it all matters.
Ellen Langer
Be kind to yourself,
Beth