What is Mindfulness?
We get asked this question all the time! Usually it goes alongside comments like: "Is it omming under a tree?" or "Is it a hippy dippy thing?" or "I can't make my mind blank, so I can't do it".
Happily, the myths around mindfulness are dissolving as more and more people discover its myriad benefits - increased concentration, better sleep, reduced anxiety and a greater sense of wellbeing.
"The best way to capture moments is to pay attention.
This is how we cultivate mindfulness. Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing." - Jon Kabat-Zinn
This quotation was written back in the 1970s by the man credited with bringing Eastern practices of meditation to the West, making them secular and accessible to everyone for the benefit of mental and physical health. Jon Kabat-Zinn is an American doctor who remains the foremost voice in the global mindfulness community. For details of his wonderful books and links to him talking about his work, please see the Resources page of this website.
Which brings us back to "What is It?" Put simply - mindfulness is a very simple form of meditation. Typically it involves focusing your full attention on your breath. As you focus on the breath coming in and out of the body you find you are able to observe your thoughts as they arise in your mind. As your practice grows, you are able to remain detached from your thoughts and you learn how to let the thoughts go.
The wonderful thing about mindfulness practice is that it enables us to treat all thoughts, big, small, trivial or serious, with the same calm, compassionate detachment. As you breath you notice your thoughts with a friendly curiosity. You are able to catch negative thought patterns before they send you off along the same old spiralling pathway. You are able to observe what triggers certain thought patterns; and what thoughts make you feel good.
You take control of your thoughts. And you can save yourself a great deal of anxiety, depression and that horrible feeling of being trapped inside your own repetitive thoughts with the feelings of tension and anxiety that can accompany them.
Certain negative patterns of thought can lead to mental illness, addiction, physical ill-health and even to a full breakdown.
Mindfulness can be a powerful tool in breaking negative thought cycles and taking control of your thoughts. This directly affects how you feel. A false assumption about mindfulness is that it is "hippy" or "airy-fairy" - the opposite is actually true: mindfulness builds resilience and empowers the practitioner.
Mindfulness is not a cure for everything but for many people it is a major step towards good mental health and wellbeing.
To dispel a few myths:
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Mindfulness is not Buddhism and meditation is not religious. It is simply a method of mental training.
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You do not have to sit under a tree or in a lotus position on the floor. It is helpful to sit in a chair with a straight back and place your feet on the floor, but you can bring mindful awareness to everything you do, including movement, eating and to most aspects of your life.
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Mindfulness practice can take as little as a few minutes daily but it needs some patience and persistence. People often find a benefit of practising mindfulness is feeling less pressured by time. Our daily practice is generally between 15 and 30 minutes but is sometimes more or less. We try not to give ourselves a hard time about it!
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Mindfulness is not complicated. Nor is it about "success" or"failure". You are not trying to "get somewhere". This is radically different from most things we take on in life and, for that reason, it takes some getting used to. It is incredibly liberating to just "be".
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Mindfulness will not give you rose-tinted specs or make you passive. It is not about accepting the unacceptable but about seeing the world with greater clarity. With self-compassion, you may find you can take wiser, more considered action towards identifying your goals and finding the best path forward. In fact, mindfulness is a practice of some of the world's most successful individuals and is promoted by some of the largest global corporations.
You will now have an idea of what mindfulness is. If you are interested in learning more about how to begin practising it within your school or family or as an individual adult please use this website and the many other places listed under Resources.
"The basic root of happiness lies in our minds; outer circumstances are nothing more than adverse or favourable."
- Matthieu Ricard