Mindfulness part 2 - How and Why to Practice Mindfulness

In the 1st part , I talked into Mindfulness, what it is and also provided some examples as well as a few solutions to a particular challenge.

Here, I will go into some more of the ‘How to’ and ‘Why’ of mindfulness but, as I said, this is a huge and very interesting subject to delve into.

Mindfulness is a skill that can be learned like any other. There is nothing mysterious about it. It’s like learning to ride a bike, cook good meals, or play a musical instrument. You start with easy practice and progress as you improve. You take classes from people who know more about it, and are more experienced than you are. You connect with others who are also interested in it, so you have a built in support group to keep you going when you get discouraged. Sometimes you’ll feel like you’re making a lot of progress; other times you’ll be discouraged. However, it is certain that if you keep practicing, if you dedicate some necessary time to this amazing skill, your mindfulness will definitely improve. 

So, what’s the practice? The practice of mindfulness is “the repetitive act of directing attention to only one thing in this one moment”. If you are brand new to mindfulness, you may say to yourself: “I can already do that” or “Why on earth would I even do that?’ 

• It’s a lot harder than it sounds. 
• The reason you do this kind of practice is to gain control of your attention. 

You might have heard the following quote: “Whatever you think about, you bring about”. That talks into the power of attraction and mindpower, which I talked into a few sessions ago.

Now just stop for a moment and think about the following sentence: Whatever your attention is on, that’s what life is for you at any given moment. 

An example of this:  You are working from home and you’ve decided to take a break from your work so you can make yourself a cup of coffee; as you are preparing your cup and boil a kettle, you keep thinking about a challenge you are having with one of your many projects. You don’t get a break because your mind is not on making yourself a cup of coffee; your mind is constantly engaged on your work and the things you have to do, people you must call, and problems you have to solve. You might have a physical break but mentally you are still at work.

How often does that happen to you? How often do you keep thinking and concentrating about your work, whether it is making a cup of coffee, at lunch, dinner, and even until late in the evening, sometimes causing you to have sleepless nights?

How often do you miss some amazing moments in life that should be pondered over, appreciated, even celebrated?...but you were to busy. Yes you were there, you were in the room…physically…but mentally you were still in another place altogether.

When do you ever give yourself permission to be mindful, to be fully present in what you do, to fully live in the moment? 

?“The repetitive act of directing your attention to only one thing is this one moment”. This means training your mind to pay attention to what you choose to pay attention to instead of letting your mind hijack you. 

Is Your mind sometimes like a TV that’s always on but you just can’t find the remote?  You have access to an unlimited number of channels but because you don’t control the remote, your untrained mind keeps playing the same painful, scary, or enraging show over and over again. 

Have you ever burned yourself on the stove or hot water or some other kind of accident? Have you ever forgotten something important or talked with another person in person or on the phone but have no clue what they said, because you just were not paying attention?

If you train your mind to pay attention, then you’ve found the remote control. To teach your mind to pay attention, you practice paying attention over and over again. 

A simple example of this is to find yourself a quiet place where you can sit with your feet on the floor, no, you do not have to sit cross legged with your hands in a certain formation. Use a chair that allows you to sit straight and just place your hands in your lap. Then relax for a minute and start to breathe in slowly though your nose, and exhale slowly though your mouth. While doing this, initially concentrate on your breathing as this stops your mind wandering. Slowly in, and out, and relax more and more. If your mind does wander…and that will happen, especially when you start this practice, just pull it back. Do this for just 5 minutes and feel the difference it has made to you already. You can do this as often as you want.

There are many ways to practice mindfulness and it does not mean you have to sit quietly in a dark room for hours a day. It is not about reaching a state where you are happy all the time where your troubles have completely disappeared. However, people who practice mindfulness will tell you that they get better at enduring pain, better at solving problems, better at not creating misery for themselves, and better at participating fully in those moments of life that are joyful. 

The practice of mindfulness requires you to be Intentional so you can create a more purposeful and healthy life. Like many of the areas of self-care, it takes awareness followed by further investigation by everyone for themselves, to discover how it can benefit them personally. This is merely the beginning and I hope you will do your research and implement mindfulness in your life immediately.

Here is also the link to my self-care video about this article: https://youtu.be/nXQmHWPQ6BU

Jan Robberts