If there is any universal wisdom about how a person should live their lives with less difficulty, it is the idea of mindfulness.
Mindfulness defines the active practice and effort of living in the moment every day.
The vast majority of people, myself included, tend to numerate about the past and the future and neglect to appreciate the present.
With mindfulness, one can manage one’s emotions and feelings without judgement while living in the moment.
Mindfulness can be achieved through a variety a methods, including meditation and prayer.
Mindfulness is flexible and can be approached in myriad of different ways that is best suited to your lifestyle, belief system, etc.
Mindfulness is available to all of us, but it takes dedicated daily practice to master it, and the real challenge is to live in the moment all day, every day.
The most popular road to mindfulness is through meditation.
We experience the present most intensely when we meditate; our four senses are fully engaged and we become totally aware of our surroundings.
We also become completely in touch with our emotions and thoughts.
Through this, we approach our thoughts with less judgement and are able to more closely explore the nature of our thoughts, why they manifest and where they come from.
When we are not able to meditate, we can experience mindfulness through pausing, breathing and focusing on our surroundings.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, creator of research-backed stress-reduction programme Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), defines mindfulness as: “The awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.”
Kabat-Zinn adds that mindfulness is a key passageway to achieving true wisdom and understanding of ourselves.
Some of the basics of mindfulness include:
Setting aside some time
• You don’t need a meditation cushion or bench, or any sort of special equipment to access your mindfulness skills, but you do need to set aside some time and space.
• Observe the present moment as it is.
• The aim of mindfulness is not quieting the mind or attempting to achieve a state of eternal calm, it is simply to aim to pay attention to the present moment, without judgement.
Easier said than done, I know.
• Let your judgements roll by.
• When we notice judgements arise during our practice, we can make a mental note of them, and let them pass.
• Return to observing the present moment as it is.
• Our minds often get carried away in thought, that’s why mindfulness is the practice of returning, again and again, to the present moment.
• Be kind to your wandering mind.
• Don’t judge yourself for whatever thoughts crop up, just practice recognising when your mind has wandered off and gently bring it back.
Mindfulness is not a new phenomenon, quite the opposite in fact as it can be traced back thousands of years to the teachings of Buddhism and Christianity.
Mindfulness is actually one of the core teachings of Buddhism and one of it’s foundations.
Buddhists believe in The Four Foundations of Mindfulness, which are our bodies, our feelings, our minds and phenomena/the world around us.
By training in mindfulness of these four foundations, we see, more and more, how all of these things really are, outside from our conceptual ideas of them.
Buddhists believe that not living in the moment is one of the main reasons for human suffering.
They believe people suffer because they misunderstand reality.
To readjust their thinking, Buddhists cultivate their awareness by focusing on the “three marks of existence” – impermanence, suffering and insight.
By being aware of these, we can liberate ourselves from fear and suffering, see a deeper reality and allow us to witness impermanence without fear, anger or despair.
In Christianity, mindfulness is connected with freedom that God provides.
In the Gospel of Luke we read: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall put on.
“For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
“Consider the ravens: They neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them.”
The passage goes on to say: “Of how much more value are you than the birds!
“And which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his span of life?
“If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?”
With our God-given freedom, we are afforded the freedom to choose where to focus our minds.
“In the material world, we are limited to processing reality in time.
“The presence of God is hidden from our senses.
“But when we focus on the present moment, we can have a sense of being present with the reality of where God exists,” says theologian and pastor Dr Gregory Baotaro.
Mindfulness is an invaluable tool in demonstrably reducing stress and overcoming fear in our fast-paced modern world, and although it is something that is exceptionally difficult to achieve, it is worth the effort – even a little progress can add much value to your well-being.
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