What Exactly is Mindfulness Meditation?
Mindfulness is very popular but many people feel confused about what it really means. A very simple way of explaining it is that mindfulness is the ability to think of just one thing at a time. For example – when you are driving your car or even perhaps peeling some potatoes, your mind may be wandering off all over the place. It is almost as if you are not in control of your mind. Sometimes you might begin to observe how your thoughts wander so much, this can be quite fascinating.
However, if you were to successfully practice mindfulness, your mind would be a lot more peaceful and quiet. You would be focusing purely on the task at hand much more often and much more easily. This may sound like an odd thing to do in a way – to be peeling the potatoes and only thinking of peeling the potatoes…? However, you will find that when you practice this and it starts to work, there is a sense of peace, calm, focus, awareness and more. The noise of buzzing thoughts is gone and you are effectively experiencing this very moment of now, fully and with all of your attention.
Mind Wandering
Naturally you will find that your mind does wander now and again but it gets less so with practice. When you notice you are thinking about something that is nothing to do with the moment of now and the activity at hand you guide your attention back. It really is that simple. At first this may be frustrating as the mind wanders a lot.
If you have ADHD it will wander even more – but know this – the more difficult it is to keep your mind focused on the task at hand and the present moment – the more your mind wanders and thoughts intrude, the greater the benefit of persevering. Once you get control you may wonder how you tolerated that much mind wandering before.
How to Practice Mindfulness
You may choose to try mindfulness initially in a mindfulness meditation setting and that is a good place to start. Perhaps start with 10 minute daily sessions. It might help to play some uncomplicated music such as a sound-bath or singing bowls. There are lots of these on YouTube. You might feel it isn’t working at first. A lot of the progress may be merely in the noticing of the mind wandering and thoughts intruding. It may feel like there are not many moments of pure focus and quiet. Persevere, it will happen.
Once you are getting some progress and you find you can be focused in the moment for noticeable periods, perhaps as short a 1 minute at first. You can progress and practice for longer periods several times a day to develop the skill. I highly recommend moving your mindfulness practice into ordinary activities next as this helps to integrate the benefits of mindfulness into your conscious day to day life, rather than it being a separate thing in itself. You may notice many benefits. You will have more focused attention, better listening, less stress, less anxiety. You may find you get along with, accept and appreciate other people more too.
Try Mindfulness
Mindfulness techniques and suggestions are incorporated into a lot of my hypnosis downloads and meditation titles, but this is not something you need to use to attain the skill of mindfulness. You can practice a dedicated mindfulness practice without using anything. If you want to though, you could get a bit of help by using my “Achieve Mindfulness Meditation” audio, click here to go to it. Anyone can practice mindfulness in day to day life, or mindfulness meditation and the benefits make it really worthwhile.
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