Mindfulness: The Art Of Living In The Now

Have you ever heard of mindfulness or mindfulness? Meditation has been a common practice in Asian societies for thousands of years. This discipline helps the practitioner to find spiritual balance. Meditation was brought to the West during the 1970s.

Mindfulness, sometimes referred to as full awareness, is one of the practical applications of meditation. This form of meditation is also used in psychology as a way to deal with problems, anxiety, stress and depression.

What exactly is mindfulness?

To really understand mindfulness, we have to look at it in its context – look at the Buddhist roots it has. In general, life within this philosophy is seen as a composite of pleasant and unpleasant feelings. It teaches us the meaning of attachment—our attempts to stay in a pleasant state of well-being and avoid an unpleasant state—and shows us how attachment can cause suffering.

By viewing life in this way, you can discover that the solution to our suffering can be found by embracing life as it is. By accepting both the good and the bad in such a way that it frees us from tension and pushes us towards a state of tranquility.

In order to reach this state of consciousness, people in Eastern cultures practice various forms of meditation. Mindfulness is one of these forms of meditation, and in the West it has been adapted as a way to promote a state of relaxation that can help resolve stress-related problems, anxiety, and even depression.

In practice, mindfulness is about sitting still and focusing your attention on your breath, concentrating on your breath and accepting every thought and feeling that arises in your body and mind during this quiet moment of concentration. Make a mental note of each of these sensations, but release them the same way they came in, without doing anything with them.

How can you apply this habit in your daily life?

Many people who practice mindfulness practice breathing exercises for about 40 minutes a day. However, there is another way to put this idea of ​​full consciousness into practice in your daily life that also offers psychological benefits. Let’s give an example:

Imagine yourself having breakfast. Usually when you eat dinner you are thinking about a thousand and one other things: what your working day will look like today, your shopping list, the conversation you had with your partner the previous evening, etc… Or maybe you try multitask by simultaneously reading the newspaper or chatting on your mobile phone while eating.

To practice mindfulness properly, you must focus your attention fully on what you are doing in that moment. In our example, where you are having breakfast, you can do this by applying the following instructions.

• Decide that during the time you eat your breakfast, you are only busy eating your breakfast and nothing else. Be fully present in that present moment, without any distractions.

• Just once, while you have your cup of coffee and your toasted sandwich in front of you (or whatever it is you usually eat for breakfast), try to become aware of the thoughts you have that have nothing to do with the act of eating your breakfast. Acknowledge these thoughts in your mind and accept them, but don’t get “entangled” in them. Instead, try to focus on eating your breakfast again.
• Concentrate on what your senses experience. Focus your attention on the flavors and textures of what you’re eating, the temperature in your kitchen (or wherever you usually have breakfast), and whatever sensations you have in your body. Experience all this without judging. That is, try not to determine whether it is cold or warm, for example, but make a mental note of how your senses perceive the reality you are in at that moment. Be aware, without judgment. Breathe slowly and steadily.

You can apply this habit to any part of your daily life: while showering, cooking, driving, or just sitting at your desk at work.

This habit will help you to be better able to focus your attention fully on the present moment in unpleasant situations. In addition, it will help you avoid the temptation to judge people and situations, for example when you are in a traffic jam or waiting in line at the bank.

What are the benefits of mindfulness?

Scientific studies show that this habit of focusing all your attention on one thing can help reduce stress and anxiety and combat depression. This is because, in large part, these disorders are caused by our turning our minds to the past (from regret, nostalgia, or the thought of how things would have turned out if…) or to the future (worrying about what will happen or from the desire to find ourselves in a hypothetical view of the future). In either case, we neglect and don’t value the present moment we’re in enough; the only moment that actually really exists.

Mindfulness is about teaching our minds to stay in the present moment. It focuses on the influence our feelings have, without regret, frustration or expectations. These three factors are important. These are fundamental components of anxiety and depression.

By teaching yourself to live in the present moment and not only enjoy the positives (the taste of your delicious warm toasted sandwich with butter), but also accept the negatives (the stifling heat of summer) , you will discover a kind of peace that you have always had in you. Because of this, you will be better able to view the obstacles and inconveniences in life from a state of inner peace.