The Act of Being Mindful

I’ve heard more and more people asking about using mindfulness to improve the quality of their life.  A lot of people associate mindfulness with meditation and guided relaxation, but this is not really what mindfulness is all about.  While meditation is a tool used to help bring about a mindful state, mindfulness is really about removing emotion and judgment from your observations of your life and being more present in the moment. 

Every day, we filter all of our sensory input through an internal mental system that makes sense of, and assigns meaning to, our experiences.  This system filters information and creates an internal dialogue that helps us determine how we respond to things.  Most of the time we take in an experience, process how it relates to our past experiences and our belief system, make a judgment, and have a resulting emotional reaction.  This is how we determine whether an experience or observation is good or bad or even somewhere in between.

So how does mindfulness change this process?  Mindfulness is the act of becoming an observer.  Basically, you are slowing your thinking down and taking in all of the input and sensory stimuli without making a judgment or reacting emotionally at all.  This allows you to remain calm and objective about experiences or allows you to take a strong emotional reaction you might be having to a stimulus and calm it down quickly.  It involves practicing awareness of not only the input you are receiving (sounds, smells, sights, etc.) but your own internal reactions to them and neutralizing those reactions.

Since this is a process that does not come naturally to those that are prone to depression and anxiety, it is something that needs to be practiced.  This is where the meditation comes in.  Meditations are an amazing way to practice this kind of observing awareness and strengthen your ability to do it during stressful and emotional times.  I always recommend practicing every night before bed so you have the added benefit of better sleep.  If you are looking for some ways to kick start your mindfulness, Dr. John Kabat-Zinn is always a great resource, but for those of you who feel time crunched I love the app Headspace.    It is a great app for short meditations that anyone can do anywhere.  So no more excuses, get started today.  I promise that you will thank me for how much calmer and more competent you feel.