We tend to look at life as either good, bad or indifferent. While we are concentrating on the 10% that is great and the 10% that is bad, if we don’t notice the 80% percent that is neither, we miss out on the wonder of life. It is the ordinary things around us that can be incredibly simple and are often overlooked, like the people around you at the shops, or the drive from A to B. Like the sky and clouds, or stones and the ground, a snail shell, a flower or a coloured leaf.
When you are driving, notice the scenery around you, instead of listening to the internal dialogue going on in your head. Instead of listening to your thoughts about where you have just left, and where you are going, bring yourself into the car. Be aware of the speed variations, feel the motion of the vehicle, the bumps on the road, the curves and the hills. What I want you to notice is the actual journey that is taking you from where your were to where you are going. Time slows down when you are experiencing every moment. Instead of arriving and not noticing how you got there, you were aware that you were going there. You saw what was around you, buildings, grass and trees, the lines on the road, the other cars, the telegraph wires and people passing by.
When you are out walking, turn off the chatter in your mind by looking around you and focusing on the present moment. By anchoring yourself to the smells, sounds, and sights in your world, your mind stays present. Look up into the sky, through the leaves of the trees, feel the air around you and the surface of the ground under your feet. When you hear birds singing, and smell the flowers you are being truly present. The chatter in your mind is a creation of your mind.
You are always in the present moment; it is the only moment you can be in. Being aware of being in the present moment is being mindful.
Did you get that? Being aware of being in the present moment is being mindful. I hope you were being mindful. It’s about paying attention to what is around you. You are aware. That means not being distracted by extraneous thoughts.
When you focus on where you are, what is around you in the present moment of time, time can move slowly if you are fully aware. If your thoughts are racing around all over the place, time will run away with you because your thoughts aren’t organized. When you are listening to the chatter in your mind, you forget where you are. When the mind is quiet, and you come into the present moment, everything is calm and peaceful.
A simple example of being unaware is to become engrossed in something on your phone or the TV. You become unaware of what else is going on around you. Whereas, an example of being aware is when you are out in nature and all your senses are alive and feeding you stimuli.
Think of a time when something beautiful struck you, a moment that took your breath away, a beautiful sunset or walk in forest or by the sea, a moment that made you stop and feel the joy of being alive. Close your eyes and recall how you felt at that moment, your mind can take you back to moments of bliss. Mindfulness opens our view to really sensing the world and to appreciate everything around us.
Your mind is constantly trying to draw you into thinking about the past and the future. These are just thoughts, and thoughts aren’t real, they are figments of your mind.
Let’s talk about worry. Say you are worrying that something bad is going to happen. You are projecting your thoughts into the future because it hasn’t happened yet. You are creating scenarios of what you think may happen. It probably won’t happen, but you believe that something may happen because your mind is telling you to believe it. The mind is very powerful. You are worrying for nothing because nothing bad has happened. I always say: if you are worried about something, you can either do something about it or you can’t. If you can do something about it, then do it. Don’t procrastinate, if you are concerned about something, and there is something you can do about it, you definitely should. But, if you can’t do anything about it, if it’s out of your control, then you are wasting your energy worrying about it. Therefore, worry is a waste of time and energy. Instead of worrying, be concerned, that is a more constructive way of thinking.
Mindfulness trains the mind to be in control of thoughts and feelings, you become the driver of what you are thinking and feeling rather than your thoughts and emotions being in control of you. Think of a chariot driver. The horses are thoughts. If he is a good chariot driver, the horses will be under control and he will drive them where he wants to go. But if the chariot driver loses control of the horses, they will bolt and charge off wildly.
- Mindfulness gives you space in the present moment to be in the world around you and to look inside.
- Meditation is a space where you can safely deal with problems and painful memories, we’ll talk about that later.
- Meditation allows you look at and plan for the future from the security of the present moment. I love making plans, because plans can always change. Plans are ideas about what you might like to do in the future, but they are flexible, not concrete.
- Active mindfulness can be practiced anywhere, anytime bringing greater awareness into your life. Mindfulness can be used for its physical and mental benefits, detached from the eastern concepts and philosophies that traditionally accompany the practice. But when practiced without the original ideas of good living and morals such as Buddhas noble eight-fold path, Yoga’s Yamas and Nyamas, or Christianity’s 10 commandments, mindfulness becomes just another prop for the ego.
- When we are living in the moment we aren’t worrying and creating stories about the future. Expectations lead to disappointment, if you don’t have expectations, you won’t be disappointed, just wait and see what the future brings. Expectations are created by our minds.
- The chatter in the mind that is often referred to as the monkey mind. Thoughts clog up our minds, never giving us peace, leading us on a journey like a circus train.
Mindfulness is the practice of coming into the present moment, noticing the surroundings, being truly present in the environment, pausing to have a break from the chatter of the mind. When you stop and be in the moment you will notice things that are always there but you don’t notice because you are listening to the thoughts in your head. The swaying of the telegraph lines, the rustle of the leaves in the trees, rays of sunlight, the texture of a fence railing, the colours of the rocks, the feel of the pavement under your feet, the smell of rain & cut grass, cooking, even unpleasant smells are more relevant than the chatter in your mind.
Mindfulness brings you into connection with the universe, it makes you aware that nothing is separate, that all things are connected. The shady tree you are standing under can’t grow without the rain and sun, it needs the help of insects and wind for pollination. The earth isn’t fertile without the mulch of the leaves and the worms under the ground. You can’t exist without air and water and food and food can’t exist without air and water and nutrients; everything is interconnected. Mindfulness is a moment to stop and pause in this interconnectedness.
If your mind is disturbed the best thing to do is stop, take some deep breaths to slow your heart rate, slow your mind and look around, come back into the present moment to get a view of your true situation, stop your thoughts for a moment, rest your mind in mindfulness. In time you will not only become less anxious but you will be able to see the beauty in the smallest thing. All of life will take on a magical glow.
Mindfulness gives you space in the present moment to look internally and at the external world around you, where you can safely deal with problems and painful memories, it allows you look at and plan for the future from the security of the present moment.
Active mindfulness can be practiced anywhere, anytime bringing greater awareness into your life. When we are living in the moment we aren’t worrying and creating stories about the future. Instead of having an expectation of what something is going to be like only to be disappointed, just wait and see. Expectations are created by our imaginations. We don’t know what will happen in the future.
The chatter in the mind that is often referred to as the monkey mind, the thoughts that go on in our heads, clogging up our minds and never giving us peace, lists of thoughts leading us on a continuous railway journey from one thought to the next, starting in the laundry basket and leading to a daydream of the circus.
Mindfulness is the practice of coming into the present moment, noticing the surroundings, being truly present in the environment, pausing to have a break from the chatter of the mind. If you stop and look around you will notice things you don’t see, the swaying of the telegraph lines, the rustle of the wind in leaves of the trees, the way the sunlight glints though the tree and shines on the grass. The texture of a fence railing, the colours of the rocks or pavement under your feet, the sun shining or reflecting in a window, the sounds of birds, the smell of rain, cut grass, cooking, even unpleasant smells are more real than the chatter in your mind.
Mindfulness brings you into connection with the universe, it makes you aware that nothing is separate, that all things are connected. The shady tree you are standing under can’t grow without the rain and sun, it needs the help of insects and wind for pollination, the earth isn’t fertile without the mulch of the leaves and the worms under the ground. You can’t exist without air and water and food and food can’t exist without air and water and nutrients, everything is interconnected. Mindfulness is a moment to stop and pause in this inter-connectedness.
If your mind is disturbed the best thing to do is stop, take some deep breaths which will slow your heart rate, slow your mind and look around, come back into the present moment to get a view of your true situation, stop your thoughts for a moment, rest your mind in mindfulness. Overtime you will not only become less anxious, but you will be able to see the beauty in the smallest thing, a butterfly, a stone or a flower. All of life will take on a magical glow.
Mindfulness can be used just for its physical and mental benefits, detached from the eastern concepts and philosophies that traditionally accompany the practice. But when practiced without the original ideas of good living and morals such as Buddhas noble eight fold path, Yoga’s Yamas and Nyamas, or Christianity’s 10 commandments, mindfulness becomes just another prop for the ego.