Mindfulness

Mindfulness
The four foundations of mindfulness from two millennia ago

Lion’s Roar (a Buddhist magazine) has just published a good explanation of the Buddhist approach to mindfulness.
The article mentions the “four foundations of mindfulness.” These are instructions contained in a document first written about 2000 years ago. The foundations are:

– Mindfulness of your body. This could be of your posture, walking, breathing and so on.

– Mindfulness of feelings. This is about being able to observe your emotions and allow them to pass in their own time. it’s a really useful life skill which, I would say, we never really master but we can get better at it over time with practice.

– Mindfulness of the mind. You could think of this as being aware of your state of mind. So if your mind is angry you could realise this and also realise that this is going to heavily influence the kind of thoughts you have. Also, it can include being aware of your thoughts as they go through your mind. When you are aware of them, you can ask whether they are true or not, whether they really matter – and often they are not and they don’t.

– Mindfulness of the world around you. This is mindfulness of what you see, hear, smell, taste et cetera.
So as you can see the basic practices of mindfulness have not really changed in 2000 years. The article has much more than this and is well worth your time. Link.

08/08/2016

Mindfulness
Thought thinks it matters more than reality

“Thought can organize the world so well that you are no longer able to see it.”
― Anthony de Mello, One Minute Wisdom
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Thought seems to say, “I am far more important that what you are seeing, hearing etc. You should give all your attention to me. By the way, I heard this really annoying thing about you today.”

Walking around Venice recently I was amazed at how often I had to drag my mind back to the present moment. But of course my mind thinks its thoughts are far more interesting even than a remarkable historic city!

​It all emphasised that mindfulness is always a commitment to present moment awareness and that it has to be renewed again and again even in a fascinating place like Venice.

It emphasises too that the natural setting of the brain is to wander away from the present which is rather inconvenient. Even when you put a lot of money and effort into an experience – visiting Venice, say, or an expensive meal, you may experience only a percentage of that experience because your mind will want to be somewhere else. With the deliberate practice of mindfulness you get to be present for more of these experiences. In that sense, I guess, ​mindfulness gives you better value for your money and your effort.

08/07/2016

Mindfulness  ·  Mindfulness Exercises
Mindful walking: a simple and effective mindfulness practice

One of my favourite mindfulness practices is mindful walking.

Mindful walking is good if you’re feeling a little restless or when your mind is agitated. But it’s also good as a way to bring your attention back to the moment again and again,  and that’s the essence of mindfulness.

Mindful walking  is as simple and as complicated as maintaining – as best you can – your awareness of the fact that you are walking.

  • You might try to be aware of each footstep.
  • You might harmonise your walking with your breathing.
  • You might note sounds around you.
  • If you are walking at home you might notice creaks in floorboards.

If you try to do all these things at once, you will end up in a knot. So it’s best to settle on just one or two ways to do this practice. I try to be aware of my feet against the floor and of sounds.

As with other mindfulness practices, when you realise you have drifted away in thought, just notice what you are thinking about and then return to your walking.

Some people like to walk mindfully and slowly in a circle or back and forth, often in a location, such as a meditation centre, which is set aside for that purpose.

But if that’s not your scene, or if you don’t have such a place to go to, you can practise mindful, normal walking in everyday life using the simple methods above.

The Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn is an advocate of mindful walking. You can read a (long) article by him on this practice on the Lion’s Roar website  at this link.

08/07/2016

Mindfulness  ·  Mindfulness Exercises
You don’t have to sit for 20 minutes to be mindful

Do you have to sit and observe your breath for 20 minutes a day to practise mindfulness?

No you don’t.

Sitting mindfully is helpful and builds that “mindfulness muscle” but it isn’t essential.

Many people don’t live in circumstances in which they can sit mindfully for 20 minutes a day: long commutes, demanding kids or a lack of privacy all put paid to monk-type meditating. Others would give up on mindfulness if they had to do it because, well, they can usually find something more interesting to do than sitting for twenty minutes with their breathing – actually the same is true of people who meditate daily and they do it anyway: if you are not made of such stern stuff don’t drop mindfulness but use some of the ideas below.

Mindfulness in daily life
So, if sitting mindfully isn’t your thing, you can aim to cultivate mindfulness in your daily life. How? Try these:
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  • As often as you remember to do so, take a few calm breaths in awareness. This takes you out of the mind-wandering that so many of us get lost in.
  • When you realise you’ve drifted off into rumination (going over and over negative stuff in your mind) bring your attention back into the present moment and to what’s going on around you.
  • Walk or stroll mindfully, in other words, bring your awareness to the fact that you are walking, to the sensation of walking, to what you see and hear. You don’t need a park or a forest for this (most of us don’t have one handy). You can be mindful when walking in your place of work, in your home, or down the street.
  • Choose a routine action to do in full awareness: drinking tea or coffee, walking along the street, showering, brushing your teeth, starting the car, cycling – it’s an endless list.
  • Do short practices on an app such as Insight Timer. It’s one of the world’s most popular mindfulness apps. I have some short practices on it myself at this link.
  • Download and use some of my (usually) short mindfulness practices on the audio section of this website or on Soundcloud (Soundcloud tracks start playing automatically).

Buddhist tradition
Mindfulness as we practise it today was developed in the Buddhist tradition. But historians say most Buddhists have not traditionally practised sitting and meditating, that this was more a practice for senior monks in monasteries – the juniors were busy doing the hard work!

So if sitting in meditation isn’t for you, practise mindfulness anyway and you’ll still get the benefits of this great life skill.

To learn more about the many ways to practise mindfulness, do my Easy Mindfulness online course. Payment is by donation. Learn more

 

08/06/2016

Mindfulness
Free mindfulness audios

​Check out my audios page for my free mindfulness audios. People sometimes think of these as guided mindfulness meditations but most are short, and are meant to be usable by you in a busy day.

Audio page link.

08/07/0216

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