Are you aware of what's happening around you?
Imagine watching a movie and upon reaching the credits at the end realising you spent so much time fast forwarding to reach the interesting parts that you actually missed most of the movie.
Yet, that is what we do on a daily basis. We spend so much of our time on auto-pilot we miss a great deal of what is going on in our lives.
So, stop and listen to all the sounds around you. This might include traffic or nature outside, the hum of machinery inside the house and even the sound of your own breathing. If you find your mind wandering, gently and without judgment pull your mind back to the present. If you become fidgety or impatient, notice but do not resist.
Did you manage it? Well done, you have just engaged in a mindfulness exercise.
"It's ironic that the act of clearing your mind is termed mindFULness" - Eckhart Tolle
The past is where we store our memories. We reminisce for pleasure and use the memory of a successful experience to help build character. The past also provides us with important information that helps us live our lives. Planning for the future demonstrates responsibility and is also a necessary incorporation in one’s life. This relates to our aspect of doing.
Living in the present, just being, is a challenge for highly motivated people, who are always seeking to achieve and need a reminder to sometimes slow down, to stop and enjoy the moment. The ability to focus on the present is termed mindfulness.
Studies now show that multi-tasking is not the virtue once thought; it decreases efficiency and productivity. It has been estimated that 50-80% of our day is run on autopilot. Many of our choices are made out of habit, which frees our minds to wander elsewhere. Most people can relate to the experience of arriving at a destination, and realising with a jolt that they can't recall the route they took because their mind was elsewhere.
One way to develop self-awareness is through mindful living. In psychology, the term mindfulness has been defined as a technique in which one focuses one's full attention only on the present, experiencing thoughts, feelings and sensations but not judging them.
Mindfulness is the understanding that our experience is a combination of our thoughts, sensations, feelings and impulses so that each experience is multi-faceted. With mindfulness we learn to notice this succession of thoughts, sensations, feelings and impulses so that we can experience them each individually. As we break down our experiences to their smallest components we expand our awareness.
Mindfulness has been discovered to change the structure of the brain, neuroplasticity. These changes can reduce stress through lowering the presence of the stress hormone, cortisol. It increases a sense of self, raises the ability to empathise and improves memory. It has been found to lower blood pressure, improve brain function, boost the immune system and minimize pain sensitivity.
When engaging in a mindfulness exercise, if you experience moments in which you feel as though you are emerging from a fog, revealing a part of you that, until now, had been hidden, you have discovered mindfulness.
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Discussion point. How did the mindfulness exercise make you feel?
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