How does mindfulness work?

Before I answer that let me reveal me little device I talked about in my last post.

It’s a household item that will stop any negative thinking dead in its tracks.

It’s an elastic band.

You put it on your wrist and every time you catch your conscious mind thinking negative crap snap the band against your wrist.

I recommend you get one of those flat bands that are about a quarter of an inch thick.

That way it won’t cut into your wrist.

Try this for 7 days and you’ll be amazed at how fast your conscious mind stops all forms of self-sabotaging thinking.

The good news is your brain is like plastic and you can reshape it to work the way that you want.

Now let’s take a look at how mindfulness really works.

Recently I was listening to an audio book Called “Your Best Brain,” by Professor John J. Medina.

He’s from the University of Washington School of Medicine.

He talks about the latest brain research in his amazing book. He says, “We must be crazy to believe our memories are dependable because they fade so fast. If this is true, then how can it be an accurate library of our past?”

You don’t need a good memory to imagine what might happen to you tomorrow.

“You must pre-live the future... not re-live the past... and savour the moment.”

Alex Moses.

Your memory is a “gadget” for the future not the past.

Your brain does a lot of projection about the future. It makes a best guess and then gets feedback to see if it’s correct.

Let me prove it to you.

Think about tomorrow.

Do you know where you’ll be and what you’ll be doing?

I’m guessing you’ve answered yes.

See how even I’m projecting right now.

Let me ask you this.

Do you know what you’ll be doing an hour from now?

Two hours from now?

What time you’ll go to bed and what time you’ll wake up?

That’s because you have a “future memory” of these things.

You have future memories of something pleasurable that is going to happen to you soon.

You also have future memories of what you have to get done later today.

THAT’S THE REAL FUNCTION OF YOUR MEMORY!

That’s what it does best.

It knows how to get you what you want. Food, sex, pleasure, money and so on.

You continually make predictions all day, every day.

You predict how and when you’ll cross the road.

Where you’re going when you set off to drive.

What you’ll have to eat later.

Where you’ll go out with your friends.

And even the choice of drink or food you eat.

If this is true, then you use your memories to envision your future.

Here’s how Linnaea Ostroff, Ph.D. puts it after reviewing the book “Predictions in the brain using our past to generate a future.”

“Memory systems do not store past experiences but recycle their components into the imagined future.

As survival advantages go our ability to envision and plan a nuanced future is a masterpiece.

Arguably it’s the root of our success as a species.”

Here’s my take on this.

Mindfulness means having your mind full of the future events you want to create as soon as possible.

Your future view determines your future you.

In other words, when you take the time out to deliberately imagine a future you want using your memories of what you like you’ll greatly increase your chances of getting there.

Tomorrow you’re in for a real treat because I’m going to show you the four stages of visualization.

And how to make your future so vivid, real, and compelling until it becomes your reality.

As I like the say, “It only works because it can’t do anything else.”

I’ll leave you with this thought.

“God always provides what we need, but we must be ready to open our eyes and see it.”

The Midrash