5 ways to improve Mindfulness
Mindfullness
What is it?
As an engineer, they trained me to solve problems. How to fix things. How to design things. Delving into my mind wasn’t a part of any course that I took. Now that I have mostly completed my problem-solving days, I am becoming more aware of how much my mind and mindfulness can affect my life. Merriam-Webster defines mindfulness as the “practice of maintaining a nonjudgemental state of heightened awareness of one’s thoughts, emotions, or experiences on a moment-to-moment basis.” To be a mindful person, we must live at the moment, not in the past and not dwelling on the future. My wife always asked me if I remembered something in the past. My answer was no, I am thinking about what is coming next.
Why Is It Important to me?
This changes the way we interact with people. We listen fully to them not so we can prepare a response that contradicts what they are saying but so we can understand what they are saying and why. It changes the way you see nature. If you are sitting on a rock by a stream, then you try to be fully aware of everything around you. You listen to the sounds of the stream, the birds, the wind in your face. You see the clarity of the water and these all give you a peaceful feeling. This will allow you to go to this place in your head in a more stressful time to relieve the stress. Mother Teresa said, “Be happy at the moment, that’s enough. Each Moment is all we need, no more.”
How do I learn to be more Mindful?
Jon Kabat-Zinn says, “The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. This is how we cultivate mindfulness. Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing.” To learn to be more mindful we need to learn to pay attention to what is going on around us. Unfortunately, most of us live a life of splitting our attention between what is going on where we are and what was going on earlier in the day when our feelings got hurt. We worry about what someone else meant by what they said. We have to learn how to quit splitting our attention. Attend to the now, be at the moment and worry about what someone said later. As Eckhart Atoll said “In today’s rush, we all think too much, seek too much and forget about the joy of just being.”
What habits can help me be more mindful?
What can I do to be more attentive, to live at the moment, and enjoy the joy of being? We have to learn to be attentive, talk to, and know our inner selves. We need to ask ourselves why are we distracted, stressed, and unable to be at the moment? We need to allow ourselves to try unfamiliar things and control our negative mind talk that says it won’t be as good as his or hers, it won’t be perfect. We know the world only accepts perfection.
5 habits to practice becoming a more mindful person.
1. Create a meditation habit- Sit down at least once a day and be peaceful. Breathe purposefully. Clear your mind and tell your body to relax.
2. Practice Gratitude- Be grateful for what you have. Focus on what you are grateful for and not what you don’t have or can’t control. You have enough to live in this moment.
3. Notice the world around you- When you are out walking notice the wind in your face and how it feels. Listen to the birds singing. Observe the flowering plants. Even in a desert environment, there are flowering plants, and they show us nature’s beauty.
4. Feel your body. How do your feet feel when you are walking? What muscles get tight and ache? Clench your fists and be aware of the sensations that create.
5. Breathe- Breathing deeply on purpose in through the nose, hold for a count of three, and then breathe out through the mouth. Breathing invigorates the body, brings oxygen to the brain, and renews your life.
And finally, two quotes. Jack Kornfield said. “In the end, just three things matter: How well we have lived. How well we have loved. How well we have learned to let go.”
