We all hear the term “Mindfulness” bantered around these days. There are lots of stories that adopting a process of dedicated mindfulness is beneficial to your overall quality of life. What I do know is that there are more and more reasons to incorporate Mindfulness to Improve your LIfe, and the sooner the better!
From Wikipedia
Mindfulness is the practice of purposely bringing one’s attention to the present moment without evaluation. This is a skill that you develop through the practice of meditation or other “focus” training.
“Mindfulness derives from sati*, a significant element of Buddhist traditions, and is based on Zen, Vipassanā, and Tibetan meditation techniques. Though definitions and techniques of mindfulness are wide-ranging, Buddhist traditions explain what constitutes mindfulness, such as how past, present, and future moments arise and cease as momentary sense impressions and mental phenomena. Individuals who have contributed to the popularity of mindfulness in the modern Western context include Thích Nhất Hạnh, Herbert Benson, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Richard J. Davidson, and Sam Harris. Clinical psychology and psychiatry since the 1970s have developed many therapeutic applications based on mindfulness in simple terms right or ability to focus your mind on only the present for helping people experiencing a variety of psychological conditions.”
- *(Sati (Pali: सति; Sanskrit: स्मृति smṛti) is mindfulness or awareness, a spiritual or psychological faculty (indriya) that forms an essential part of Buddhist practice. It is the first factor of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment.)
Translation
In simple terms, Mindfulness refers to our ability to focus our mind on only the present moment, unfortunately not a common occurrence for most people. Mindfulness includes being in your body, in your present location in the current moment. Your focus is on what you’re doing now, focused only on yourself, knowing who you are, knowing what’s going on around you, understanding what you want to accomplish in your life and what your goals are.
This focused thought contrasts most people’s days spent focusing on the past, the future, or virtually anywhere else but in the present. If you don’t think this is true, take a few minutes to monitor your thoughts and see where your focus goes. Are you thinking about what you have to do today or what you’re doing right now? Are you focused on reading this post, or are your thoughts occasionally taking you to other places, other times different life experiences, etc.?
Understanding The Point Of Mindfulness
Before starting your mindfulness journey, it is essential to understand what mindfulness can and cannot do for you. Many people looking at mindfulness are not really sure what it entails. This can result in having unrealistic expectations.
MINDFULNESS
Many people believe that mindfulness is about attaining some paradise or calmness. Mindfulness is often described as some state of perfect happiness or peace that is oblivious to anything outside ourselves. Instead, it is important to understand that mindfulness is not about reaching this illusionary state. In reality, life is always full of things that will challenge us, which can cause us to become ungrounded, even if for a moment.
In other words, this blissful state is a passing time, and instead, mindfulness can and should make you feel more content, more grounded, happier, etc. This helps you to enjoy your life more. It helps you see past your short-term struggles and appreciate all of your life.
Mindfulness helps you live a better life by being more grounded, being more content in your situation, and responding more compassionately and rationally, even in difficult situations.
Mindfulness is not about creating a perfect life but about creating the life you want and are excited to live.
If you understand that this is the point of mindfulness, you can more easily set realistic goals for your mindfulness training. These goals should reflect your current abilities and future wants to actively pursue your ideal life.
Final thought: Mindfulness is not about being in this state all the time. As humans, we would become completely overwhelmed and overloaded if we stayed in the present every moment of every day. There are times in our lives when we should think about the past, future, or nothing at all.
The Problems of Maintaining Mindfulness
It is far too easy to get distracted by what is happening outside of us or the present moment in today’s fast-paced world. This, in turn, creates a state of mind that is unfocused and scattered. This scattered state of thinking can cause unexpected and continuous problems in our lives. This causes us to be the opposite of mindful, instead of peaceful; we can create too much chaos in our lives.
Mastering Mindfulness
The great news is we are all capable of mastering the skill of mindfulness. Like most things we learn, we simply need to practice and train our brains in the process of mindfulness.
Great Reasons Why Mindfulness Improves Your Mind, Body, And Soul Time
Here are some Great Reasons that Mindfulness helps improve Your overall quality of life
A) Increases your Emotional Stability
Being mindful will help you to stay calm and collective. This can really help you have a much more peaceful demeanor, both inside and out. By being calm emotionally, you will be able to act on current events instead of reacting based on your history. This will help you have a more accurate emotional response to what is happening around you at the moment.
Simply, by separating the past from your current experience, you can base your reactions only on what is going on in your world at this moment. A by-product is that your emotional reactions will be proportional to what’s going on around you, not fuelled by your history.
B) Mindfulness Lowers Your Stress Levels:
These days it seems that life is becoming more and more stressful. This is especially the case in the middle of this pandemic. Stress is always a part of life, just more so currently. Saying that stress is just part of life.
The real issue is not just stress, but more importantly, how you deal with it. How you deal with the destructive nature of stress is really reflecting how you think about what’s going on around you. Unfortunately, your own thoughts can trigger old emotions, which just trigger more ideas. The next thing you know, you are now reliving something that happened 30 years ago and projecting it onto your current moment. This is where most people get to, as their emotions and thoughts take over.
Another fantastic by-product is that this mindfulness process will help you stay healthy and lower your risk of heart disease, etc.
C)Improved Memory Skills
With people living much longer these days, many people have worries about declining memory, especially as they age. The great news is that mindfulness helps you have better memory, as mindfulness helps to improve the part of the brain associated with memory. More specifically, it enables you to make new memories instead of living in the past. As you become more mindful, you will better live in the moment and appreciate the new memories as they come to you. Being mindful helps you to make new memories based on today alone, without dragging past memories into today’s experience.
D) Act Versus React
A fantastic by-product of taking on Mindfulness is that it teaches you how to respond to a situation instead of reacting. By being in the present moment, you are not dragging in your history and making it a part of your thinking process. You’re only dealing with what’s right in front of you. The more you intentionally respond, the better you will be at this time.
E) Increased Compassion
Many people think that compassion is either born with or you miss that gene. This is not true. Mindfulness can help you become more compassionate to others and yourself as it will help you increase your awareness by being present and letting go of distractions.
As your compassion increases, your relationship with your loved ones and others in the world also improves dramatically. Similarly, self-compassion allows you to better understand yourself and stop being your own worst critic.
F) Improves Overall Well-being
Mindfulness helps you be more content with your life. Mindfulness improves your overall well-being, from motivation at work to satisfaction in your relationships. This will then help you appreciate all of life’s phases, even the tough ones.
G) Additional Benefits Of Mindfulness
There are many health areas that mindfulness can have a positive effect. As an example, mindfulness can help to improve the following conditions:
- Anxiety
- Pain
- Depression
- Elevated Blood pressure
- Insomnia
- Diabetes
- Cardiovascular diseases
Mindfulness also helps to increase attention, regulate emotions, and increase motivation and overall life satisfaction. Together, all the positives help you have a happier and more fulfilled life.
Conclusion
Mindfulness is the act of being in the present so that you can live a healthier and happier life. As you become more mindful, you will experience many benefits for your emotional, mental, and physical health.
To take back control of your entire life, start practicing mindfulness as soon as you can. This practice will help improve your mind, body, soul, and overall quality of your life for various reasons. As you begin practicing mindfulness, remember to be patient and kind to yourself since mindfulness is not easy at first.
Its Time to Take Action —–
—- To Sit quietly and focus on the current moment only!
