mindfulness: What is it?

Mindfulness is the kind of AWARENESS that you bring to everyday living. It is learning to control your mind, rather than letting your mind control you – the opposite of living on autopilot. In practice, mindfulness is directing your full attention and focus on one thing. When you recognize that one thing in the moment (what it tastes, feels, sounds, or looks like), you are being mindful. It is a process of OBSERVING, DESCRIBING, and PARTICIPATING without judging. Example – Mindfulness, Non- judgmental: “There is a red rose with a strong scent and two petals that are starting to wilt.” Not mindfulness, judgmental: “Wow that is the most amazing smelling rose. But it sure isn’t the prettiest, because the petals are ugly.”

WHO can do it?

ANYONE can practice mindfulness. It is a great way to learn to focus and pay attention. Living in our fast- paced world with internet, computer games, and cell phones, we often forget to notice how natural life really works. We feel like we don’t have time to “stop and smell the roses.” We do. We just need to take the time.

WHEN and WHERE can you do it?

You can do this anywhere, at anytime. It can be planned or spontaneous. You can do a five-minute practice in the morning to help start your day – in your bedroom, on the porch, or in the car. You practice when you are eating. You can practice when you are standing in line or on hold on the phone. You can practice to help relax and calm down. ANYTIME is the right time.

HOW can you do it?

There are many different ways you can practice mindfulness. The goals are the same, no matter which method you use. If you want to focus your attention on your breathing, you could focus on the rise and fall of your CHEST, the feel of the air coming in and out of your LUNGS, or counting each BREATH. But only choose one. This sounds easy, but can be challenging because our mind is so used to wandering from one thought to a thousand others. That is okay. Just notice that your mind is wandering and REFOCUS to what you were focusing on. The practice and process is to catch your mind wandering and gently, gently, gently bring it back. That is mindfulness! If you start judging yourself, let it go, forgive yourself, and continue focusing again.

WHY do we do it?

Mindfulness helps us to experience instead of avoiding, suppressing, or not noticing. Experiencing life as it is – learning to accept things without trying to STOP or CONTROL things. Mindfulness helps us to learn to feel emotions without HARMING others or ourselves. Maybe you find out that the person who annoyed or upset you woke up with a headache or just heard bad news. You could use mindfulness to be more EMPATHETIC of how your thoughts to into unrealistic expectations of yourself and others. By noticing the “shoulds” and other restrictions we place on ourselves (“We are best friends. We SHOULD always get along.”) In the end, mindfulness helps us to use our “wise mind.” This is where your emotions and thoughts work together to make wise choices, instead of acting directly from emotions or only from thoughts. “Wise Mind” has also been called “our true selves,” “our intuition,” and “our centeredness.”