In a world that is continually moving faster and providing more and more distractions to pull you out of the present moment, it is more important than ever to learn how to be aware of the present moment. A person can lower stress and enrich their life experience by cultivating this awareness. In this article, I will try to explain what mindfulness is and give some examples of how to practice a mindful life.
Understanding Mindfulness
Mindfulness is defined as the state of being engaged and fully present in the moment, right now. Judgment or attachment is not present in relating to your thoughts, emotions, or current external circumstances. One tries to be aware of the thoughts and feelings every situation brings into our lives from external stimuli and internal thoughts and responses to whatever is happening, and accepting it.
Today, mindfulness has become a mainstream practice and is widely studied and adopted in fields like psychology, medicine, education, and corporate settings. It has proven to be an effective tool for enhancing overall well-being, reducing stress, improving focus, and promoting emotional resilience in the face of life’s challenges. The integration of mindfulness into various secular settings has made it accessible to people from diverse backgrounds and beliefs, making it a universal practice that transcends its original origins.
Benefits of Being Mindful
So many positives come to you when you understand the present moment is all you have. It will help you reduce stress and anxiety because you are eliminated regrets about the past and worry about the future by existing in the only thing you have, the present moment.
By doing this you will also improve your Mental clarity and focus. Rather than having your thoughts bring up uncontrolled images of yesterday or tomorrow, a person can focus on what today is bringing into life, good or bad, and accept it as a part of life’s experience. Rather than resist it because it doesn’t match your perception of what life should be.
Our emotions also benefit from the practice of mindfulness, because we start to be aware of the feelings we are experiencing in the moment. We can learn what each emotion actually is and what thoughts or experiences have brought it to the surface. Without mindfulness and awareness, we will be a servant to these feelings. Understanding and acceptance puts the power in your hands, so you are in control of what happens.
What you are aware of you control, and what you are not mindful of controls you. That is the way many deal with their emotions throughout their lives. The practice of being aware of your experiences throughout the day will enhance the quality and experience of your life.
All of the things we do every day are to find true safety and security. The relationships we build, the jobs we work, the friends we make, the places we go, everything we do is build this illusion of being safe and secure. It is only an illusion. No matter how hard we work to establish a life with no danger, we are all continually susceptible to suffering. So, where do true safety and security come from? It can never come from outside of you; it can only come from the inside of you. This is the only place it can exist and grow in any real way for any of us. The human experience is full of pitfalls and ugliness, along with the magic and beauty we can see every day. It is time you started looking at the things stopping you from seeing what is stopping you. It is your limiting beliefs.
Overcoming Limiting Beliefs
Our beliefs have been formed over the experience of our lives. As young people, we look to our environment to see where we fit in and survive and thrive. We look at our role models and listen to the lessons we are taught. We also are very good at feeling our way and where we fit. When we find a situation causing pain or trauma, we create a limiting belief about it. Pushing trauma away, hiding it inside of us, denying the suffering it causes and the pain you feel is creating a mess from your childhood that will affect you for the rest of your life until you make an effort to deal with your emotions around it.
The only way to overcome these childhood traumas is to learn to accept your pain. Whatever it was, no matter how big it was to you and your development, accept it. That doesn’t mean you approve of it, or like it, or forgive anyone for things they did. It simply means to accept it happened, you felt how you felt, it is over, you are still here. Accepting it will take power away from that trauma, and you move past a hurdle of pain you have been carrying all of your life. You will be able to move past it into a positive relationship, career, and life. Seems like a good deal to me. Accept the experiences you have had in your life.
Building Real Security
Moving into a structure of real security inside yourself takes effort and conscious thought, but anyone can do it and become invincible. First, be present at the moment at hand. All we have is right now, don’t spend time waxing poetic about the past or worrying about the future. Think about the future but don’t build an attachment to what has to happen. Thinking of things you want to accomplish and taking organized steps toward these goals works. Obsessing and worrying about all the things you think can go wrong or must happen will not.
Accept yourself for the person you are. Just like you accept your past, you have to do the same with yourself. Wishing you were something or someone else is a slap in the face to you and the greatness you have. Too many people look at their flaws and obsess about fixing what is wrong rather than looking at what is right and building on that solid and powerful foundation. Successful people don’t deal from a place of lack, they work from abundance, and we all have abundance. Open your heart to yourself and all that you have to offer.
Appreciate Life
Look at the world around you and celebrate what you see that is good. There are always reminders of how great the universe is. Sometimes we get so wrapped up with our own thinking we get run over by them. Rather than appreciating the rain, we complain about it. When it is sunny, we say it is too bright. Look around you and see the wonder that is always right there. Feel a connection to it and celebrate it. For example, you drive down the road and move past trees, lakes, birds flying, bright blue skies dotted with puffy white clouds, all pretty miraculous, but we don’t see them. Appreciate it all, life is a short trip, and it will be over before you know it. Don’t waste your time being self-centered and a prisoner of your thoughts.
Learning to have unconditional love for yourself and life all around you is one of the most difficult things to do. We are constantly getting hurt, emotionally, physically, and spiritually leading to an almost constant healing process. But as we heal, we learn, grow and become a different and most often better person. Being yourself and giving that to the world is a true gift. Some people will break your trust and reject who you are. That is their problem, not yours. You are one of a kind and incredible. Be you, and don’t worry about being accepted by negative people with small minds and smaller conscious thought patterns. Be the great you that you were destined to be!
Safety and security come through this path. You can build huge walls around yourself, but they won’t keep you safe in the end. Only being yourself, being vulnerable, and accepting all of the things about yourself can bring security. To do anything else is a definition of insecurity, and it is tough to be happy and healthy through a vision of insecurity.
Take action on your own vision. Your emotions are a clue to what you need to work on. How you feel in certain situations will lead you to the issues in you that need acceptance and a place inside you so that you can move past them into the best version of yourself.
“Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, Add what is uniquely your own.” — Bruce Lee.
“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” — Viktor Frankl.
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” — George Bernard Shaw.
“The only journey is the journey within.” — Rainer Maria Rilke
“They must often change who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.” – Confucius
“We must become the change we want to see.” — Mahatma Gandhi
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” — Will Durant
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
“What we think, we become.” – Buddha
“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” — Napoleon Hill.
In a world that is continually moving faster and providing more and more distractions to pull you out of the present moment, it is more important than ever to learn how to be aware of the present moment. A person can lower stress and enrich their life experience by cultivating this awareness. In this article, I will try to explain what mindfulness is and give some examples of how to practice a mindful life.
now. Judgment or attachment is not present in relating to your thoughts, emotions, or current external circumstances. One tries to be aware of the thoughts and feelings every situation brings into our lives from external stimuli and internal thoughts and responses to whatever is happening, and accepting it.
