A very simply way to understand
mindfulness is that it is a practice of placing your attention on
what is happening in the present moment. Mindfulness is the
cultivation of being where you are not where your mind takes you.
Our minds move from the past to the present to the future with no
conscious effort on our part. Just sit for one minute and observe
your thoughts. Your mind may go to something you will do after work
or is anticipating having a dinner with a friend or the angry
feelings left from this morning argument with a partner. Most
people’s minds are undisciplined meaning they go wherever with no
awareness of these internal shifts. Learning to be mind full means
choosing to place your awareness or attention on what is happening
in front of your eyes. Mindfulness can be practiced anywhere
anytime. It is at the heart of self change. Choosing to enter into
therapy, hopefully, is something you want to do for yourself rather
than do for someone else.
If you decide to practice mindfulness you will
learn also to be:
Non-Judgmental means looking at the facts only
not your opinions or placing a value on the facts of liking or not
liking.
Patience means you are allowing
whatever it is unfold on its own without controlling, demanding,
manipulating whatever it is by you.
Trusting means knowing what is
true for you and not relying on an expert or someone in authority to
tell you what to do. In a word, being responsible for what you
think, feel and do 100 percent.
Non-Striving means the focus is
not on a goal, achievement but being you in this moment without
attaching some end point in the future.
Accepting means allowing
yourself to be as you are without forcing someone else’s agenda onto
yourself or conforming to some external situation to the way you
wish things to be. This type of acceptance frees up the energy for
healing.
Letting Go
means becoming aware of holding onto pleasant as well as painful
feelings and thoughts, also denial of feelings and thoughts as a way
to teach yourself that change is happening all the time. All
things change even if we cannot see the change happening. Everything
is impermanent.
