Mindfulness in simple terms
After years of studying experts and practicing mindfulness meditation, I've synthesized some of the wisdom into a few sentences that make it simpler, more understandable, and (I hope) more approachable to those who may be interested but still confused.
- Mindfulness is simply observing "what it's like to be you" in this moment.
- The "you" that is observing thoughts arise is not enhanced by positive thoughts or diminished by negative ones.
- The true goal is to allow all conscious experiences (in the form of thoughts) to arise without being reactive or judgmental, which builds the muscle allowing us to treat all life events in a non-reactive way.
- One way to view thoughts is like the weather. We like to think we are the proximate cause of our thoughts, but we're not.?Like the weather, we don't have much control over them. But we can choose to react, judge, or simply observe what "is."