What is Mindfulness?
While the word may be more familiar now, mindfulness is still frequently misunderstood and poorly defined in popular and social media. The experience of mindfulness, and its counterpart mindlessness, occur daily for us all. Let’s first explore mindlessness - moments when we are on autopilot, such as driving home and not recalling any details of the drive. While these moments appear harmless (but have the potential for adverse outcomes), they rob us of the opportunity to fully engage in life and all it offers.
Mind-LESS-ness and Stress
When we approach stress without awareness, it controls how we see the world and ourselves. We lose our ability to see a way out of the stress. Stress, depression, and anxiety begin to define our day-to-day experience.
Mind-ful-ness and Stress
Mindfulness invites us to be fully present, moment to moment, being with what is, suspending judgment, and greeting all we encounter with patience, acceptance, compassion, and curiosity. This form of awareness not only increases our ability to cope with stress and suffering but also cultivates a sense of calm, elevates our energy, and unleashes our creativity.
Mindfulness and Meditation
Meditation is a formal practice to cultivate mindfulness. While simple in theory, mindfulness can be challenging to bring into our daily life. Meditation creates a period of dedicated practice, carved out of the usual clutter and chaos of our day. With consistent practice, meditation nurtures an increased ability to practice mindfulness "off the cushion" and in our daily lives.
Final Thoughts
Mindfulness can be thought of in three ways - a tool, an innate capacity, and how we show up in our lives. Most often, we see mindfulness reduced to just a tool similar to relaxation exercises. While mindfulness can be applied in this way, it runs counter to the mindfulness principle of non-striving. Mindfulness becomes something to either succeed or fail in its pursuit. The unfortunate outcome of this approach - many people perceive failure and drop it by the wayside.
The irony is we cannot drop something that dwells within us all. Mindfulness is an innate capacity we all accessed regularly as children (they are mindfulness masters!). Somewhere along the way, our values shift and we bury this capacity under priorities like productivity, status, and appearances. This is where we can leverage the tool, or better said, the practice, and reclaim our birthright. Regular mindfulness practice, supported by a qualified teacher, invites us to once again access and apply this innate capacity. Invites us to find our way back home to body and this moment. Invites us to access all our gifts and talents, and find peace and joy.
Learn more about mindfulness
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