PRACTICE MINDFULNESS: What Is It?

“Life is a dance. Mindfulness is witnessing that dance.”
― Amit Ray, Mindfulness Living in the Moment – Living in the Breath

PRACTICE MINDFULNESS: What Does It Mean In Our Lives?

MINDFULNESS is a term that gets thrown around a lot now and which is often hailed as some kind of ‘solve all’ for every kind of problem under the sun! Practice Mindfulness How Is It Done?

MINDFULNESS is part self-help technique, part clinical tool and has lately grown to spawn countless e-books, courses, and evening classes.

What precisely is mindfulness and how do you define it?

Mindfulness: An Explanation

Boiled down to its essence, mindfulness is the observation of one’s own thoughts and emotions.

In other words, it means stepping back and then simply being aware of what you are feeling, what you are thinking and what you are experiencing.

This can then in turn be used to help treat a wide range of different psychological problems and to improve your psychological health.

The reason for this is that it brings more attention to the way that we handle various events and to how our thoughts and emotions normally control us.

This then in turn allows us to anticipate them, to deal with them and to prevent them.

For instance, someone who deals with social anxiety will have a number of ruminations that contribute to their symptoms.

These might include worries that they will ‘make a fool of themselves,’ that they will be laughed at, that they will stammer…

Many of these thoughts are likely to be inaccurate. It is only by being aware of them that it is possible to manipulate them, to rise above them or to suppress them entirely.

Uses of Mindfulness

When used to combat such conditions as social anxiety, mindfulness can be seen as a clinical tool.

Specifically, it is an important part of ‘CBT’ or ‘Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.’

This is a psychotherapeutic approach that involves the practice of replacing and reprogramming underlying thoughts, beliefs, and ruminations.

At the same time though, mindfulness has also long been a part of other meditative practices.

mindfulness chakras

Here, the goal can often be different. In this case, the objective is to be more aware of the present moment. In terms of the sensations, the sounds, and the emotions.

For instance, by practicing this, they can eventually become more ‘present’ in the moment. As a result they are better able to react to what is going on around them without judgement. Without the constant ‘brain chatter’ that so many of us experience.

Mindfulness is a broad tool that can be used in a number of diverse ways.

In every scenario though, the true end goal is to be aware of the present moment and to find an inner calm that often eludes us. Practice Mindfulness!!