What is Mindfulness

Mindfulness is paying attention to the present moment, with openness, curiosity and without judgment.

What does it mean?

Whenever you bring awareness to what you’re directly experiencing via your senses, or to your state of mind via thoughts and emotions, you’re being mindful.

So, mindfulness can be experienced not only through meditation, but also through everyday activities, such as daily chores, eating, drinking and walking.

The goal of Mindfulness

Is to wake up to the inner workings of our mental, emotional, and physical processes.

What we know about Mindfulness now, is that it isn’t just training attention and focus, which is very important, but that it also influences our ability to unwind our natural stress response.

Grounded in Research

There is a lot of scientific evidence behind the practice of Mindfulness.

There are physical health benefits. It changes the structure and the function of the brain in a positive way. It helps a person communicate better, in relationships, and have better physical and mental health.

What are the benefits?

• Learn how to relax and regulate emotions.

• Reduce worries, anxiety, and distress.

• Create a sense of calm.

• Improve concentration and increased productivity.

• Develop a sense of empathy and connectedness.

• Enjoy better physical health and sleep.

Why should I be mindful at work?

Mindfulness helps us to look after ourselves.

When we feel better, our clients will feel better.

Mindfulness helps us cope with our workload.

Mindfulness helps us deal with emotional demands that might come with the job.

Mindfulness helps us deal with vicarious stress, families, and carers.

Mindfulness helps people to be more compassionate and communicate better.

Different types of meditations that will assist you to bring Mindfulness into your life.

There are several different types of meditations. In this blog I chose a meditation which combines two techniques: Being here now and watch your thinking.

Be here now - noticing anything around you, breathing, sounds in the room, tension in the body, your thoughts or the different senses.

Watch your thinking - the part of you that does all the noticing. Observing self. You are not your thoughts! Learn to notice your thoughts, acknowledge them and let them go.

A Meditation for Letting Thoughts Float by Like Bubbles.

A practice for observing the wandering mind and allowing each thought to pass.

This practice is meant to help you become mindful of the mind as a process. Practicing awareness of the mind helps break our addiction to the contents of our mind. When we meditate on the mind as though it is a process, as though each thought is like a bubble floating, we can experience the spaciousness of awareness.

We can practice allowing each thought we have to pass without getting into the thought bubble and floating away with it. Most importantly, we practice being patient and kind to ourselves as we explore this meditation.

A:  Sit comfortably, close your eyes and listen to the sounds you can hear. Sounds within the room, perhaps the sounds of nature outside. Move from sound to sound. Try to hear all the sounds together.

B:  Begin to internalize by bringing your focus to your breath without changing anything about your breath. Focus totally on your breathing. Be aware of each inhalation and each exhalation. Join your breath on its journey.

C:   Bring your full attention to the present time and experience. Acknowledge the full range of what’s happening in this moment. Tasting, smelling, physical sensations, and emotional sensations are all present. Allow all the experiences to be as they are and redirect your attention to the sensation of your breath. Let your other senses move to the background as you bring your awareness of the breath to the fore. 

D:  Allow your breath to find its own natural rhythm. You don’t have to breathe in a certain way. Take a moment to investigate where you feel the breath most easily, or where you feel contact with the breath. Typically, this will be in one or two places; for example, in the rising and falling of your belly, or on the tip of your nostril. Find where you feel it the most and see if you can post your attention there. For the next few minutes, choose that one place to stick with, while maintaining your attention on your breath. Feel the sensations of the air entering and exiting your body. Notice all of the sensations that make up the experience of breathing in your body. 

E. Bring kindness to your practice. You may have already noticed that it is not so easy to keep sustained attention on an object, or on breath. In the beginning, while you’re training your mind in present time awareness of your breath it’s really important to bring a quality of kindness and understanding to your practice. The mind is almost constantly wandering. See if you can try to be friendly toward your experience; of course, your attention will wander. Try not to take it personally, as it’s not your fault. That’s what the untrained mind does. 

F. Place your kind attention on the mind. With that same kind of understanding attention, you’ve been meeting the breath with, see if you can meet your mind in the same way, and place your attention on the mind itself. As you observed your rising and falling breath, you observe the rising and passing of your thoughts. When working with the mind, it’s helpful to allow the awareness to be expansive. Try not to get caught up in the contents of thoughts; let go of the need to solve any problems or make any plans. See if you can relax into the present time awareness of thoughts coming and going. 

G. Try not to judge your wandering mind. Practicing this will begin to break the addiction to the contents of the mind and break the identification with the mind. Meditate on the mind as though it is a process, as though each thought is like a floating bubble with the spaciousness of awareness. One bubble may contain plans, another may contain a memory, and another may contain a judgment or emotion. Allow each thought to pass without getting into the bubble or floating off with it. If you do become pulled into a thought or lost inside of a story, it’s not a big deal. It doesn’t matter where you went or how long you were there for what matters most is how you return the attention back. Be patient and kind with yourself. Bring the attention back to awareness of the mind. 

H. Observe the process of the mind. In the beginning of this practice, you’re likely going to get seduced by thinking repeatedly, floating off into a plan or a memory that feels too important to let pass. Suddenly you may have what seems like a very important revelation or inspiration. This is just a natural process of the mind. As you continue to practice you will continue to change your relationship to this process, eventually becoming less and less compelled to follow a thread of thinking, especially when you’re meditating. 

I. Notice what is happening in this moment. Whether you’re in your seat and your body watching the thoughts arise and pass away, or if you’ve gotten lost in a thought—Remember, if you’ve gotten lost in a thought it is not a big deal and is important to the process. Be easy on yourself. As soon as you notice this, you’re experiencing a moment of awakening. These moments of awakening are part of the goal. Once you notice that you’ve gotten lost in a thought, bring your attention back, and try to start over again. Whatever the object of meditation is, (whether it’s the breath, the body, a sound, or in this case the mind and thoughts), just continue to see the object for what it really is: just phenomena. Arising and passing, impersonal, impermanent phenomena. 

J. Come back to the breath. Before you end your meditation practice, let go of the attention in the mind and bring your attention back into your body. Bring your attention back into the feeling of the contact points, feeling the ground, the solidity, and the weight, and open to the sensations of your breathing. Feel your breath rising and falling. Notice whatever you feel like and see if you can allow these feelings to just exist. Right now, it’s like this. 

When you are ready very slowly and gently allow your eyes to open, staying with this sense of awareness.

This meditation is based on a meditation from http:/www.mindful.org - A Meditation for Letting Thoughts Float by Like Bubbles.

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