Benefits of Maintaining the Mindfulness in Day-to-Day Activities

Mindfulness is an impartial observation of the mind; it is present-moment awareness—non-egotistic alertness and acute awareness of change. Because mindfulness happens in the current moment, it prevents the mind from going back to the past or forward to the future (i.e., the mind is stable) and there are no biases of unjust thinking. 

Mindfulness can be achieved through meditation practices. However, to achieve benefits from meditation, one needs to practice it regularly. On superficial terms, it helps one to be relaxed, improves clarity of the mind, and builds mental energy. With continued practice, one develops compassion, love and kindness, patience and forgiveness, and other good qualities of humans. Mindfulness meditation has also been used to rectify several health conditions and concerns, including hypertension, marginal depression, anxiety, and the balance of mind. 

Achieving the mindfulness is similar to switching the light in a dark room. It will allow us to see things as they really are. Vipassana practices sharpens this ability. Gradually, practitioners will learn to observe their minds (i.e., looking inwards) without judgments, interpretations, or criticisms of anything and without any preconceived ideas. Moreover, when one is mindful, communications become easier.

Explanations of mindfulness:

The short-term end result of maintaining mindfulness is learning to live from a “body-heart-mind” that offers comfort and safety to self, family, community, and the world. This is described in the Sigalovada Sutta, a layperson’s Code of Discipline (DN., 31). It provides guidelines on how to relate to others; take care of parents, teachers, and elders; and when and what to give attention to (i.e., the wise and mindful attention).

When one practices Seela (virtue), mindful meditation practices lead to the development of Samadhi (concentration). With daily practice, the mind will advance to the stage of wisdom. Virtue leads to concentration, which provides the stability of mind that allows wisdom to arise. Wisdom then creates a feedback loop to deepening the virtue, and thus, enhancing the ability to concentrate; in turn, deep understanding and mental purity occur.

Maintaining the mindfulness:

Maintaining the mind in the present in Samadhi, minimizes the occurrence of unwholesome thoughts and improve the mental stability. With practice, one could minimize the attachments and stay in the mental zone of “no pain no pleasure” in the mind. This is the first step towards gradually eliminating desires, gratifications, greed, hatred and delusions. 

Be mindful and aware of your posture even at the time, going to sleep. Knowing and acknowledging the body and its posture can be a key tool to accepting the above middle path of non-attachment.  Your body will be good as long as you mind is good and pure. Moreover, mindfulness will prepare us for changes and challenges in our lives, including death.  

When mindfulness is maintained, defilements, distractions, interferences, and psychic irritants do not arise in the mind. It is a perfect recipe for those with disturbed minds to overcome that state without any expenses, pharmaceutical, other agents, or intoxicants. Moreover, with the practice of mindfulness, one can gradually eliminate anger, suspicion, greed, hatred, and desires. 

Benefits of mindfulness—improving the clarity of the mind:

Maintaining mindfulness aids us in perceiving what we are doing, seeing, and hearing, as they really are, and allows us to observe the environment we live with a fresh look and understand true nature of all phenomena. Consequently, a person who maintains mindfulness will not have a cluttered mind or be guided into action by foolish thoughts or engages in any wrongdoing. 

As described, attaining this state is known as “wisdom.” Wisdom further reinforces compassion and spontaneous awareness in our daily lives. This is Seela; it leads to strengthening our commitment to Five Precepts and developing a positive mental cycle that continues to benefit the self, surroundings people and the environment we live. This is mindful meditation in a nutshell.

Maintaining mindfulness prevents wrongdoing:

Mindfulness also counteracts defilements that come into the mind.  When one is mindful, hindrances cannot arise in the mind; impediments and distractions cannot occur. Distractions are a major component of most psychiatric disorders. Thus, when one is mindful, the signs and symptoms of psychological disorders are likely to be reduced. 

It is accepted that those with major psychological disorders benefit, to varying degrees, from pharmacological agents and various psychotherapy approaches. However, in the absence of the ability to train and maintain, maintaining the mind in the present moment through developing mindfulness, cure for psychological disorders cannot be expected. This is a fallacy of the Western approach to treating psychological disorders. 

Summary:

Meditation is cultivating the mind. Meditation also improves one’s concentration, precision of thoughts, thinking, and rationalizing power. The practice of meditation leads to personal transformation into a better person. The development and maintenance of mindfulness is one of the first steps toward this. Those who follow the simple path of developing and maintaining mindfulness enable themselves to “settle” the mind; keeping the mind in the present. This is the first and an important step to overcoming many psychological disturbances and disorders in humans.

Those with and without psychological disorders are immensely benefited by learning to keep the mind in the present moment and maintaining the mind during day-to-day activities. With practice, doing so minimizes the occurrence of the mind jumping from place to place (fewer disturbances; ‘monkey’ mind) as well as erroneous thoughts coming to the mind. Furthermore, maintaining mindfulness improves the ability to concentrate and improve the clarity of the mind, leading to inner peace and lasting happiness.  

The next article explores the path to develop wisdom through developing mindfulness.

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Professor Sunil J. Wimalawansa, MD, PhD, MBA, DSc, is a physician-scientist, educator, social entrepreneur, and process consultant. He is a philanthropist with experience in long-term strategic planning, cost-effective investment and interventions globally for preventing non-communicable diseases. [recent charitable work]. The author has no conflicts of interest; he has received no funding for this work.