According to the Oxford Dictionary’s definition, mindfulness is the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something, a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts and bodily sensations.
Mindfulness is more than just a practice, more than meditation and more than a stress reduction program. Mindfulness is a way of living and a way of being.
Become present in everyday life
You can practice mindfulness in a way that you become aware and present in everyday life, in everyday experiences, on a moment to moment basis and this awareness will become a natural way of expressing yourself and perceiving life.
Mindfulness is more than just a practice, more than meditation and more than a stress reduction program. Mindfulness is a way of living and a way of being.
In a way, mindfulness is a new skill that you need to learn and by practicing it, you are making it a part of your being. Eventually, mindfulness will become a natural part of you, effortlessly and organically. It will become a way of being.
Mindfulness is a way of perceiving the world. It includes living in the moment, being in the now, but also, it is the way you look at your emotions, thoughts, events that are happening to you, your circumstances and the world around you.
Mindfulness includes viewing all of those things from a place of non-judgment, acceptance and neutrality.
“Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn’t more complicated than that. It is opening to or receiving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it.”
~ Sylvia Boorstein
Observe, observe, observe
The goal is to perceive all events as neutral and just experience them without attaching any labels and meaning to them. The goal is to accept all of your expressions as they come and let them unfold naturally without putting any attachment on them.
Usually, people’s suffering and pain comes more from their story and interpretation of some event, some emotion or thought, than from the event itself.
Mindfulness is not about removing your thoughts or preventing your feelings to appear. It is about observing them from a detached place, it is about not judging them but about acknowledging their presence and just letting them go.
With this practice, in time, your thoughts will appear less and less, stories you have will become shorter and shorter and your view on life and your experiences will become more positive.
Imagine applying that approach of just observing everything without adding any story to it. Imagine the peace and serenity that you would feel, that surrender to the flow of life.
Is that not worth trying?
Until next time,
