No. 2 - Mindfulness Introduction
In my book I described how eating pain and feasting on life occur in the present. I also mentioned that mindfulness strategies help us direct our attention to the present.
What is mindfulness? It involves gently directing your attention to the present with openness, curiosity and compassion.
Mindfulness is an ancient meditation approach originating from Eastern spiritual traditions. Mindfulness became popular in Western cultures in the early 1990s. Now it is widely used by health practitioners to help people with mental and physical health problems. Mindfulness is also practiced by many people in the broader community to enhance wellbeing. There are thousands of published scientific reports on the benefits of using mindfulness. Benefits include improvements in mental and physical health, relationships, life satisfaction, positive emotions, parenting, work performance and emotional intelligence.
How is Mindfulness Helpful?
Life is now. To appreciate the richness and fullness of your life, you have to attend to what is happening in the NOW.
The power to act is NOW. The power for you to act exists only in the present moment, not in the past or in the future. Therefore, to take effective action you need to be fully connected to the present.
Reduces struggle. If you connect with the here and now, you are not fighting with the past or worrying about the future.
Promotes self-awareness. Directing your attention to the present, you become more aware of your conditioning (reactivity).
Gives moment-by-moment choices. When you direct you attention to your inner experiencing, you will notice your automatic conditioned reactivity as it arises in the present. This then gives you a brief opportunity to choose how you will behave: reactively or consciously by choosing a behaviour that fits with your values and the context.
The torch metaphor is useful in understanding how mindfulness works. Your attention or awareness is like the beam of a torch. Just as you can direct the torch beam to anything you choose, you can direct your attention to any target you choose. The target may be internal such as thoughts or a part of your body, or it may be external such as a sound.
I often start my mindfulness meditation session with directing my attention to breathing. This helps to settle my mind and body. Then I might direct my attention to a sound or I may broaden the ‘torch beam’ and simply allow my attention to gravitate towards anything I become aware of in the present.
Mindfully Aware of Inner Pain
As you direct your attention to the present, you might notice discomfort in the form of unpleasant thoughts, feelings, urges and or memories. This is where the ‘eating pain’ process referred to in my book comes into play. Central to this process is allowing and making room for naturally occurring inner pain. You can then shift your attention to another target (e.g., breathing) if you desire. Remember the torch metaphor you can direct your attention anywhere you choose. The irony is that taking this approach typically enables the pain to fade, whereas our usual reaction of resisting and struggling against it intensifies the pain. This touches on another resilience sub-process, acceptance. I will discuss this in more detail when I present acceptance in a later blog.
Being open to any experience in the present, whether pleasant or unpleasant, is an important component of resilience as it provides perspective and a connection with reality that allows you to take effective action.
There are two main ways to cultivate mindfulness skills:
formal mindfulness meditation and
informal mindfulness practice in daily living
In the next blog I will focus on formal mindfulness meditation.
- Kenneth Pakenham PhD