Mental Health Matters: Mentally preparing for 2024 (Part IV)

In order to prepare mentally for 2024, Caxton Local Media journalist Nonhlanhla Hlatshwayo took part in a Beginners’ Mindfulness Programme. She shares her insights as she moves onto Week 4 (Part IV), where we learn about the seven attitudes of mindfulness.

WEEK 4 of the programme was more practical, and we were given practical tools where you can apply mindfulness in real-life situations. 

In week three, we practised mindful movement where we learned to distinguish what is being felt in the body from what is being thought in the mind. 

Continuing with that segment, we learned about the two arrows – the first arrow being an incident or event occurring in your life and the second arrow being your feelings towards that event. 

Also read: Mental Health Matters: Mentally preparing for 2024

This analogy helped me understand that we are not necessarily affected by what happens to us but by our feelings about the event, which then form an attitude towards the event – and that is what we are mostly affected by. 

Knowing and understanding this made it easier to understand and apply the seven attitudes of mindfulness that we learned about during the fourth session. These attitudes apply directly to moment-by-moment life experiences. These attitudes are also about being okay without expecting things to change. 

Non-judging 

Mindfulness is cultivated by taking the stance of witnessing experiences without categorising or labelling them. As you practise this attitude, you allow yourself to fully absorb the experience without blocking it with emotions or judgement. 

Patience 

This is the ability to withstand difficulty with calmness and self-control. Learning from the ‘finding your anchor’ meditation, patience is easier to practise when you are able to draw that peace from your inner core. Patience is also easier to practise when you let go of the need for things to be different so you can be okay. This also helps to understand that things and life have cycles of their own and that we may not understand sometimes, but patience provides that calmness and wisdom –  and a lesson that your need to change things isn’t always the way to go.

Also read: Mental Health Matters: Mentally Preparing for 2024 (Part II)

Freeing ourselves of expectations 

This somewhat goes back to non-judgement. When you see things as they are, you understand that your truest power lies in the present moment, and that is when you achieve mindfulness. Through this, we are able to take experiences, actions, and behaviours as they are. When we go in with an open and objective mindset, we can take them as they are and observe what is needed and helpful in that situation. 

Acceptance 

Accepting things as they are, especially if they cannot be changed, is the epitome of peaceful living. This also comes with awareness of your feelings – be they good or bad. By ending the need to change things, you open yourself up to more room for transformation. However, this does not mean you just sit back, satisfied, and like everything in your life, but you become aware of your feelings and accept them. With more practice, you can factor in the wholesomeness of life, and that is true living. 

Trust 

You know those conversations you have in your head or those gut feelings or impulses of action you get? When you learn to trust, you allow yourself to really feel and understand what is going on inside of you. This also teaches you to trust your own authority and not look outside yourself – and you can discover what it really means to be your own person. 

Also read: Mental Health Matters: Mentally preparing for 2024 (Part III)

Non-striving 

Non-striving is about staying in your true power – not controlling and letting go of the urge to do something about things. This helps us transform from the doing mode to the being mode. When you are in the being mode, you are not striving. 

Letting go 

Letting go is detachment – understanding that the only control you have is your reaction and attitude towards life. It also means letting go of past experiences that might have led to certain beliefs and attitudes.

As you manoeuvre through life experiences, it is helpful and important to apply these attitudes as you release yourself from emotional burdens and float in the flow of life, living and experiencing life from within.  

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