Let's Talk About Mindfulness

The word mindfulness is thrown around a lot lately. It's the current "it” word of the Personal Development/ Mental Health Awareness movement.

You may have thought that mindful living was only for gurus, monks and life-long meditators.

It's not. There is a place for mindfulness for us mere mortals, with too many bills and too much stress and not enough time.

So what exactly is "Mindfulness"?

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says:

“Mindfulness is "the practice of maintaining a nonjudgmental state of heightened or complete awareness of one’s thoughts, emotions, or experiences on a moment-to-moment basis.”

Mindfulness is about awareness and acceptance.

When I speak about awareness and acceptance, here's what I mean:

Awareness is noting what currently IS at any given moment. It includes taking inventory of our circumstances, our physical presence, our emotions, and our reactions.

Acceptance is letting those things be as they are, whether pleasant or unpleasant. It is choosing not to resist, push them down or rush through them.

The "skill" of mindfulness (and yes, for adults at least it IS a skill) involves meeting life as it is, on its terms, with no resistance. We may not like what life is handing at any given moment on any given day, but resisting reality in that moment is like hitting your head against a wall. The only one it hurts really is you.

It took me a long time and a lot of (often self-induced pain) to come to these realizations.

Has your partner fallen out of love with you? Are you, or is someone you love ill? Is your boss a jerk? Have you lost your job? Are you internally railing against these things with every ounce of your energy? Is it helping the situation, or is it draining your spirit?

Yes, these things suck! I'm not going to lie, or sugar-coat or offer platitudes. Mindfulness only asks that you look at your current situation AS IT IS and not resist. Not resisting something doesn't mean you have to like it, it means not holding on to your pre-conceived ideas of how people, situations and things should look and accept them as they are for the current moment.

So your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to take a step back and honestly and openly admit to yourself the things you are resisting.

It's not going to be easy, this is where the work begins. This is also where living your life fully, begins.

“... just because it burns, doesn’t mean you’re gonna die. You gotta get up and try, and try, and try.” -Pink

Next week we'll talk about letting go of the areas of your life that you are holding on to, but that may not fit anymore.