Understanding Mindfulness

The demands of the fast-paced world have altered the way we experience our lives. Often we find ourselves wishing for more than 24 hours in the day, as it becomes difficult to keep up with the demands of the outside world. On the other hand, some of us find our time to move rather slowly, as we become crippled with boredom, finding no outlet for our creative energies.

We are experiencing a wide array of stressors - the global threat that we all are facing, the lifestyle changes we had to accommodate, and the loss of life and opportunities that we had to accept. With these sudden and novel changes, people find themselves feeling overwhelmed with emotions such as anxiety, stress, sadness, grief, anger, loneliness, and feeling out of control. Unfortunately, this is a reality for most of us.

What is Mindfulness?

In simple terms, Mindfulness means the ability to live in the present moment and focusing on “here and now”. It is a way of taking little moments to make our experiences more grounded, which empowers our ability to manage our overwhelming emotions. It is an invitation to us to take little moments throughout our day to submerge ourselves in the present awareness and become in-tune with our experiences. It is not a spiritual concept or a state of altered awareness, but a change of our perspective as we view our inner and outer world.

Core Features of Mindfulness

Observing

The most important element of mindfulness is observing your own experience in a manner that is more direct, using all of your senses.

We have a tendency to be analytic of our experiences, looking for answers for their meaning, purpose, and origins.

However, mindfulness invites us to observe our experience as simply how it presents itself and the changes it creates inside of us. We need to be aware of the situation and our emotions without being critical about having those.

Complete Participation

One aim of mindfulness is to allow yourself to consider your experiences as a whole, without excluding anything. Try to be fully aware of whatever task or activity you are doing and do it with your full care and attention.

Acceptance and Being Non-Judgemental

It is important to take a step towards accepting your experience. The reason behind prolonged significant emotional distress is the attempts to avoid or control your experiences. When practicing mindfulness, no attempt is made to evaluate your experiences or to say whether they are good, bad, right, or wrong. Also, no attempt is made to immediately control or avoid your experiences. Accepting all your experiences is one of the most challenging aspects of mindfulness which takes patience, time, and practice to develop.

Focusing on One Thing at a Time

When we are observing our own experiences we require a certain level of effort to focus our attention on only one thing at a time, from moment to moment.

It is natural that disturbing thoughts will emerge while we are observing our experiences and there is a likelihood to follow and ‘chase’ these thoughts with more thinking. The art of ‘here and now’ is to gently return back to observing your experience.

Practicing Mindfulness

We do not necessarily need to take the traditional approaches of practicing mindfulness - such as yoga, a silent retreat, or chanting. It is a simple alteration in the way we perceive our experiences, and we can practice it in most situations by just being non-judgmentally aware of our thoughts, feelings, sensations, and global experience. A few practical ways are -

1. Bring awareness to your breathing, and take a few deep breaths.

2. Pay attention to your 5 senses - what do you see, hear, smell, taste, and feel at the moment?

3. Take a few moments to be still, and empty your mind from distractions.

4. If your mind wanders, simply bring attention to your next breath.

5. Imagine your thoughts and emotions as waves; let them come and go.

6. Try to be aware of your inner experiences without being judgemental.

7. When you experience an overwhelming emotion, notice which part of the body feels it.

8. Be kind to yourself for having setbacks and replace self-critical thoughts.

9. Express gratitude toward nature, people, and things that hold value.

Mindfulness seems to have some key effects on our body and mind. It helps people to focus their attention and show more discernment at the present time experience. Frequent practice of mindfulness has a significant impact on our emotional lives, be more in touch with our feelings and sensations and be more resilient in case of stressful situations.

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Authors

Kauser Chandel

Kauser is very dedicated to her work, can go beyond her limits to accomplish the desired goal. Kauser has completed Masters in Clinical Psychology and seeks to be an upcoming psychologist, along with her dedication she is also warm and empathetic towards people she’s a good listener with good communication skills, creative thinking, very people-oriented, and strong interpersonal skills.

Ayesha Shaikh

Ayesha is an attentive, articulate, and well-presented person who is keen on a career in the mental health care sector with excellent in managing responsibility. She, along with having good communication skills, is a quick learner and passionate about learning new things and exploring her field.