What is mindfulness?
With intention and purpose, mindfulness is about bringing and paying full attention to the present moment, without making any kind of judgement.
Mindfulness provides the practice and tools to bring a fuller focus to the present moment. Developing and deepening the skills of self compassion and observation of judgement, recognising feelings or emotions without getting caught up in them, that can drive meaning and behaviours, in both positive and negative ways.
There can be many hours and days when we just behave and make decision on auto pilot, there is benefit to this as we can organise information in the brain to an efficient level to carry out tasks automatically. Look at the daily things like tying a shoe lace, picking up a glass of water, opening a door or getting dressed. All of these are coded habitually into the brain saving time and energy allowing the brain the space to learn new things.
However, whilst the majority of what we do automatically saves us time, many thoughts are naturally on auto pilot, and these can be affecting emotions and behaviours in not so many useful or adaptive ways.
Mindfulness practice helps to bring attention to the present moment, how to hold focus to the present moment, as naturally the mind can wander, especially to habitual thinking. Habitual thinking will naturally contain judgement and meaning, possibly limiting your reality of living. Imagine being able to expand your reality by spotting the autopilot thoughts, behaviours and judgements that have locked you in to a particular way? Then being able to change the way you want to think or judge and life feeling better and bringing more choice and opportunity, being able to organise things in a very different way?
Think of thoughts as a perceptual tool, a way of looking at the world and describing your experience and meaning. We can learn to observe the habitual patterns with present awareness to maybe release ourself from the power and dramas of these thoughts.
Compassionate curiosity and self discovery of these habitual patterns can be liberating and empowering. Feeling more connected to the present moment and with others.
Cultivating and engaging in a growing commitment to mindfulness can assist in influencing your health and well being. The practice of becoming more present in the moment allows you to recognise greater choice and flexibility in your options of thoughts and judgements. Often people report life feeling more vivid and real, seeing and hearing sounds in different ways.
Mindfulness also provides the ability to foster self compassion and kindness, being able to enhance your life to feel calmer, more centred, more connected to your choices and empowered with making change for yourself.
To find out more and follow your natural curiosity please explore all of the pages here on this site, reviewing what is available and the choices and opportunities available for your self development and learning.
