What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness cultivates a special way of seeing life by teaching us, as Jon Kabat Zinn says, to pay attention in a particular way--on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgementally.
According to Bhante Gunaratana, mindfulness meditation is "a practice of investigative personal discovery." It teaches us to see what really is, not what is imagined. We do this by learning not to follow every thought or feeling that pops into our head. The most generally accepted mindfulness meditation method is observation of the breath. We learn to focus on our breath while all those extraneous thoughts, emotions and sensations come and go. We certainly are aware of them, but we choose not to get bogged down by them. We learn to be aware of just this moment----and just this moment----and just this moment----and so on.
According to Bhante Gunaratana, mindfulness meditation is "a practice of investigative personal discovery." It teaches us to see what really is, not what is imagined. We do this by learning not to follow every thought or feeling that pops into our head. The most generally accepted mindfulness meditation method is observation of the breath. We learn to focus on our breath while all those extraneous thoughts, emotions and sensations come and go. We certainly are aware of them, but we choose not to get bogged down by them. We learn to be aware of just this moment----and just this moment----and just this moment----and so on.
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Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years. Practicing mindfulness can have truly amazing benefits. The healthcare community has begun to embrace the physical and psychological merit of mindfulness practice. The field of psychoneuroimmunology has emerged and is showing how interconnected all the systems of the body are and how they contribute to the whole. We don't exist in a vacuum; what happens in our mind affects our body and what happens in our body affects our mind. Mindfulness practice can provide significant stress relief. Stress can be physical such as chronic pain or mental such as anxiety or depression. Mindfulness meditation can lead to more stable thoughts and emotions. It can help us gain some control over our health and our peace of mind. Accepting life as it is in the moment does not mean resignation to your particular situation. It means acceptance that this is where you are in this moment. This type of acknowledgement allows us to feel fully human in all the glory and messiness of life. The result is contentment. Isn't that a noble goal for everyone?
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