Mindfulness is a very simple and powerful practice but is not always easy.
Here are basic mindfulness principles that can help to describe what it means to be mindful.
Detachment
People often get attached to feelings, emotions, and thoughts. They tend to replay pleasurable experiences over and over again, but also tend to dwell on unpleasant experiences. By letting go (not forgetting but releasing attachment) of everything that comes your way, you remain unstuck, in the flow of life.
Being in the now
By letting go, you are able to focus on the present moment, live in the now, and that is the only moment that exists. The past is behind you and you cannot change it, you can just learn from it, and the future is yet to come and the only place from which you can influence its outcome is in the present.
Non-judgment
People tend to attach labels to their experiences and judge them as good or bad and view their emotions as positive or negative. One of the mindfulness principles is to not judge anything or add your story to it but observe things as they are.
Openness
This means letting go of your rigid view of the world, thinking that your way is the only way, letting go of thought patterns and beliefs and being open to everything, being open to new experiences, other perspectives, and other points of view.
Acceptance
Acceptance means to stop trying to change your reality by force or acting like a victim. With acceptance, you are aware that you can change your reality only by taking responsibility for your life and your actions. By acceptance, you are both trusting and surrendering to life and taking conscious actions to make things happen.
“The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. This is how we cultivate mindfulness. Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing.”
~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
When you deal with minor events that do not have significant meaning to you then you can accept, detach and let go easier.
However, some emotions, thoughts, and beliefs go deep, often deep into the childhood, and observing them without engaging is not easy. In those moments, kindness, love, and non-judgment are very important, as are patience and persistence.
With time and practice, even those deep beliefs can be released for good.
You are not your emotions, you are not your thoughts
Often times, people tend to suppress their emotions and thoughts because they do not want to feel that discomfort, they think that the pain is unbearable and they will not be able to deal with it.
However, the truth is the total opposite. The longer you suppress something, the longer that something has the power over you, the longer it poisons you from the inside, and the longer it stays.
You are not your emotions, you are not your thoughts. You are the one behind them, you are the one observing them.
You are not your emotions, you are not your thoughts. You are the one behind them, you are the one observing them.
If you approach them from that detached place, from the place of non-judgment, if you just observe them to see what happens, how they look, what color they are, how they taste, and what shape they have, then you will see that they have no power over you. You will see through them, you will see the space behind them, they will just dissolve and all that will be left is you as an observer.
From that place, answers and solutions to your struggles will come.
Until next time,
