Thoughts on Mindfulness

I've had a trouble understanding what Mindfulness really is, and then even more trouble actually doing it.

If I had to define Mindfulness in a single sentence it would be "Being aware of what you are currently thinking and doing, almost as an objective viewer".

The concept is very simple, but in practice I don't find it quite so easy.  I've looked at many different sources to try and "get" it only to feel just as clueless as when I started.  The majority of sources try to explain how to do it by kind of... telling you just to do it - become aware of what you're thinking and doing.  I'm sure there will be many people out there who just flick the switch, start paying attention all the time to what they are doing and thinking, and that's it - they are mindful.  But nah, not me.

My favourite resource I've found so far is a book called One Minute Mindfulness by Simon Parke.  This book is a collection of one-page thoughts, meditations, stories and ideas that gently introduce you to mindfulness.  Aside from the fact the book is split into 3 chapters, there is no real structure, and I like to dip into it at random and just read a single page in isolation, or perhaps read a page or two before sleeping.  When my life feels hectic and full, this book feels like much less of a commitment than a bigger self-help book.

Because of this feeling of inaccessibility to mindfulness that I have, I don't want to make this blog overtly about mindfulness.  But there will be an underlying theme whereby my experiences in mindfulness will be described in more day-to-day terms that people can relate to.

Here's an example.  One article I read a while back (I forget the source) described of looking out for triggers to become mindful.  These triggers would be normal, frequent occurrences such as washing your hands, looking at your watch, opening a door etc.  As you noticed a trigger, you would remember to become mindful, and stop and think about what you're doing, and what you're thinking.  Now on one had this is great, but it really didn't work for me.  The triggers were far too frequent and ordinary for them to really trigger anything.  For a week or two I made "looking at my phone" a trigger - because I was absent-mindedly checking facebook or whatever far too often.  This worked for a while before I just kind of forgot to do it anymore.

On the other hand, in the highly recommended book Overcoming Stress, I read that I should look out for a different kind of trigger - signs of stress such as tensing up, becoming breathless etc. in order to try and stop and relax in stressful situations before they become worse.  Personally, I find that when I am stressed I will tense my shoulders, maybe tense up my face, and have a feeling of tension inside my head - this is a trigger that is not too frequent or ordinary to just ignore.  This is a trigger that tells me to take action at exactly the time action is needed.  I take a mental step back and have a think about what is really causing the stress - quite often something that doesn't deserve any kind of real concern.

So, if you beginning to learn about mindfulness, be aware that there are thousands of different techniques, some of which will work for you, some won't.  What mindfulness means may differ slightly from person to person, or perhaps it means the same thing but they just describe it in a different way.  I would certainly recommend it, but be aware that you may have to do a lot of reading and trying different techniques before you find a way that works for you.

I'll end with a link to a blog post I found a couple of days ago on the London Mindfulness Project website - it's article on rushing though life and I found it related quite closely to how I've been feeling recently.  I'll have to keep checking out their blog regularly in future:

http://www.londonmindful.com/blog/taking-the-rush-out-of-life-with-mindfulness/