The Art of Mindfulness and Meditation

 

“If you let yourself be absorbed completely,

if you surrender completely to the moments as they pass,

you live more richly those moments.”

-Anne Morrow Lindberg

 

Mindfulness meditation was established approximately 2,600 years ago by Gautama Siddhartha as a way of enhancing our ability to see clearly, to better understand ourselves and others and to create more happiness and peace in our lives. The Buddha believed that our ideas got in the way of our happiness and they thought the best idea is no idea at all. They proposed that you don’t have to be a Buddha to practice mindfulness, you can belong to any religious or spiritual affiliation (Weiss, 2004). “Ultimately, the path of mindfulness will lead you to a place within yourself where you may encounter the world without ideas or preconceptions, where you can disengage from your habitual narrative and free yourself from mental constructs” (Weiss, 2004, pg. xvii).

    “Mindful Action is mindfully reconnecting with our bodies through movement to release stored stress and trauma. Mindful Breath is regulating our breathing to shift the way we feel so we can better regulate our emotions. Mindful Centering is being aware of what you are thinking and interaction of your five senses with your environment to keep your focus in the present moment. This allows you to center back in the present when the mind moves into the past or the future.

    “When you integrate all 3 ABCs -- connecting action, breath, and centering --you have a powerful tool for retraining the brain to stay in the present, gain greater emotional control, and dissolve stress within the body. This neural rewiring will lead to greater calm, alert focus on the present moment throughout your day and in your interactions with others. Just a few minutes a day of mindfulness practice results in measurable, powerful, and lasting changes. These pebbles of practice can then ripple out into your life, community, and world with dramatic and influential effect” (Niroga, 2019, paras. 4 and 5).

    When we deal with our day-to-day complexities and uncertainties, mindfulness can lead us to effective and resilient answers to unyielding challenges. Because of our fast pace, media saturated culture, we need support and encouragement concerning unplugging, slowing down, and connecting to our inner life. Picture ourselves quietly listening to our breath after a hectic morning. We can finish the day by calmly addressing problems with a revitalized understanding. By grasping the indispensable nature of meditation and mindful awareness we intensify the power to positively influence our own mind and experience and to know a well-being not ruled by circumstances. Mindfulness practice is a purposeful, non-judgmental mode of awareness.

     Additional benefits of practicing mindfulness are: 

·         Reduction of stress.

·         Increased capacity to focus and concentrate, as well as mental clarity.

·         Freedom from damaging patterns of thought and emotion.

·         Trains our mind to let go of any thought unrelated to the present moment.

·         Increased learning capability and memory.

·         Improved well-being and peacefulness.

·         Fosters the ability to switch between various modes of mental activity which grants flexibility of our attention.

·         Trains a number of our brain functions including attention control, cognitive inha-bitation, mental flexibility, and emotion regulation (Weiss, 2004).   

 

    The formal mindfulness practice involves meditation. “Meditation is the process of getting to know yourself completely, both who you are inside and how you react to what is outside. Above all, meditation is enjoying yourself in the literal sense o the word. Through meditation , you discover a very different ‘me’ from perhaps the stressed or troubled person, who may seem superficially to be ‘me.’ You realize that your true nature, the real you, is actually very positive. You begin to discover an ocean of peace right on your own doorstep” (Jayanti, 2000, pg. 5).

    Daily formal mindfulness is important and to do nothing and be present in the moment. We have to stop both body and mind. During sitting meditation, we focus on our breathing. We get in touch with the nature of breathing. We begin to know ourselves, our minds and our feelings. You need a good and stable posture when sitting on a cushion or chair. If you sit on a chair, your back is straight, and your feet are flat on the floor. If sitting on a cushion, sit with your legs crossed. We use abdominal or belly breathing. Put our hand on our belly to feel the rise and fall with each breath. Pick a special place with something beautiful to look at like flowers. It may help to focus on our breathing by counting our breaths. Don’t pass judgment on ourselves if we have difficulty at first accomplishing this practice.

    An informal manner of mindfulness can be done while walking, standing in line at a grocery store or sitting at a desk. We can close our eyes or leave them open and focus on our normal breath. Then move our focus to the task at hand. The important thing is to allow our mind to become quiet. We can set a timer to alert ourselves when it’s time to head back to work or get on with our day so that we don’t have to think about the time. Then we basically walk at a comfortable pace and allow our mind to focus merely on the experience of moving. We can notice how our body feels moving through space, how our feet lift up and down, how our back holds us upright, how our hips move us forward.

    Pay attention to our movement in as much detail as possible, and tune out the outside world. We can move while focusing on our breath, noticing while we inhale and exhale. Or we can count our breaths, starting from one to ten and beginning again. When I go on a walk in the woods, I often pay attention to the leaves crunching under my feet, the rustling of branches overhead and the sounds of birds. I feel at peace when I am on these walks. If we are focusing on our breathing and moving, or counting, our mind will not be able to return to worrying or any other disturbing or distracting thoughts.

    The practice of mindfulness involves being mindful while completing daily tasks. Take eating for example. We can pay attention to the food we are eating, how it tastes, and the texture. How does it feel when we are eating the food? Is it warm, hot or cold? So often we are in a rush and eat really fast and before we know it, we have consumed a lot of calories and didn’t really enjoy what we ate. When we eat mindfully, we will enjoy our food a lot more and may eat less because we are paying attention to our eating. 

    Sixteen tips to assist us with practicing mindfulness fully in our lives: 

·         Pay attention to our own perspectives, which involve choosing how we view our lives.  We can perceive ourselves as victims without any control of what happens in our lives or we can see ourselves as masters of our own destiny. We could be in a crowded store one day and not be bothered by the crowd and then another day every nerve is on edge in the same crowded store. It is important to understand that our frustration comes from within and it is not reliant on external sources.

·         We can establish or maintain efficient communication skills to assist us with applying a greater sense of restraint, empathy, or perspective to any communication we have with others which is vital concerning all relationships. All of us have people in our lives who can push our buttons; but being aware of their personality types and how to continue treating these individuals with kindness is vital for our own peace of mind. We can’t be frustrated with someone and be at peace at the same time.

·         Taking the time out of our busy schedules to smell the roses. Oftentimes we can place our focus on the negative things in our lives, even small difficulties such as someone pulling out in front of us when we are driving. We should focus on the wonderful things life has to offer, even our breath is a miracle. We can be more at peace wen we focus on what we have instead of what we don’t have.

·         Treating ourselves and others with kindness. When we are kind to others, we feel better and more at peace. We live in a world with such high expectations and we can be so critical of ourselves if we don’t live up to our own personal expectations. The question “What do you do,” referencing to our jobs creates more stress especially if our jobs are not considered mainstream. A friend of mine responded by saying “You mean for money,” great response and it takes everybody off guard. 

·         Compassion is a lot like empathy, which means seeing what it is like to be in the shoes of another individual. It means seeing, thinking and feeling what others are experiencing. It’s part of our awareness. It doesn’t mean we take on the pain others are experiencing, it means understanding the pain they are feeling. 

·         Having balance in our lives. Our lives can be like the ebb of the sea with calm and serenity and then there are massive waves capable of capsizing boats. The challenge is to not be swept away by the strong waves of emotion. It is essential to develop a way to  ride the waves and accept the waves as a part of our lives.

·         The process of acceptance includes what we need to let go of, rather than what we need to start doing. There is no such thing as the ideal life free from stressful challenges. We often get frustrated when we don’t get our way. Observe when we are experiencing moments of resistance so we can become more aware of what prevents us from accepting what is actually occurring. 

·         Maintaining a posture of composure and letting go of impatience. Many of us are experiencing busy, hectic lives and in return we are often feeling impatient. During these moments of impatience, our foot may be tapping, our breath is shallower and our jaw is tightening, not peace inducing actions. Notice the impatience and turn that intolerance into a sense of curiosity, the very nature of the irritation we are experiencing is changed. When we become aware of our impatience, we will develop a sense of ease.  Just taking the time to notice will change our perspective.

·         Develop a sense of dedication to finish things we started and the ambition we need to start new tasks we need to accomplish. Again, mindfulness is about a shift in thinking and feelings. We will develop an understanding about our motivation and why we are doing things, not just going through the motions.  Find things we are passionate about and do them. 

·         Being present and living life skillfully will prevent us from saying and doing things we will regret later. Think before we say and do things, consider the consequences of our actions. It will give us the strength and wherewithal to respond sensitively to challenging situations rather than reacting spon-taneously. By becoming more aware of ourselves and trusting our own instincts more fully, we can learn to apply this quality of discerning our actions in everyday life and begin to live more skillfully.

·         Try eating without watching television or reading the newspaper.

·         Take a few moments to notice something enjoyable about our day.

·         Several times during the day become aware of our breathing and center ourselves.

·         When we wake up in the morning, allow ourselves some mindful breaths. Feel the floor under our feet as we rise from our bed. Be aware of our weight on our feet and pay attention to the steps taken.

·         Appreciate the things we accomplished throughout our day.

·         When we go to bed, take some mindful breaths, feel the bed under us and smile (Weiss, 2004).

 

    Difficult feelings or thoughts may persist because we are saying we are attached to our narrative. The narrative’s job is to remind us that we are not in control. Our narrative is a result of our habits. We are not locked into a specific narrative, we can choose different patterns of behavior.     One way to disengage from our narrative is to extend appreciation of our minds. Instead of being caught up in the narrative, we can adopt an approach of wonder. Our narratives are not the entire truth. We can couple our appreciation of our mind and realize we are more than our thoughts at any given moment. We can become aware of something outside of ourselves like the sky, a pet, flowers, or a tree. Whatever situation we find ourselves in, we can stop long enough to allow ourselves stability concerning our situation and we can decide what to do or not to do. We are in charge.            

    Living a life of mindfulness means developing an awareness, an understanding of ourselves and others. It’s not about trying to be someone else. It’s about finding a sense of acceptance and ease about who we are at a specific moment in time. Mindfulness practice works because we are not trying to attain benefits. We befriend ourselves as we learn how to drop in and visit with ourselves and just hang out in awareness. Mindfulness meditation allows us time in our busy lives to unleash our curiosity about the workings of our minds while approaching the present moment with warmth and kindness towards ourselves and others. It permits us to take a vacation from fretting about the future or something that just happened. It is about establishing a peaceful curiosity by watching, observing, and noticing what is happening in every aspect of our lives: how we act, how we speak, and how we think.