The sun was bright when I opened my eyes at 6:30 A.M. I stretched a bit and spent some time energetically balancing my body and taking naturally deep balancing breaths – a mindful beginning to my day.
Mindfulness is a spiritual path that enriches our inner being, improves our clarity and allows each practitioner to make his or her way compassionately through troubling circumstances without feeling overwhelmed or victimized. Mindfulness is not a religion or a religious practice. It is an internal skill that complements religious practice and promotes relaxation.
Mindfulness originated in Asia. In the United States, Jon Kabot-Zinn is the founder of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and Professor of Medicine Emeritus and founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He says, “In Asian languages the word for mind and the word for heart are the same. So if you’re not hearing mindfulness in the same deep way as heartfulness, you are not really understanding that compassion and kindness towards oneself are intrinsically woven into it. You could think of mindfulness as wise and affectionate attention”.
The pillars of a mindfulness practice are (1) now focused living, (2) increased conscious awareness, and (3) the development of positive thought which includes Jon Kabot-Zinn’s “heartfulness”. When you live in the here and now your clarity about the present, the past, and the future improves, and you gradually stop worrying about what you can’t change or prevent.
Positive thought is developed by defining what it is and is not. Mindfulness wisdom teaches that a neutral thought is not powerful enough to cause a positive change. Notice the differences in the sentences below and you’ll begin to understand the words necessary to create true positive thought.
- Negative Thought: I am exhausted and there is no way I can meet this deadline.
- Neutral Thought: Even though I am exhausted and overworked I’ll try to meet the deadline.
- Positive Thought: Even though I am challenged by today’s deadline, I am capable.
I have a lot of reasons why I enthusiastically continue my mindfulness practice. I want inner peacefulness, and I look forward to a time when all hearts are at peace and peaceful coexistence is more prevalent than conflict and war. I want physical health and inner harmony. I choose a balanced schedule so I can enjoy the various things that bring me fulfillment. I want my grandkids to think of me as a positive, happy and productive person.
What mindfulness can do for you, your family, and the world community:
- Mindfulness is good for bodies: It boosts our immune system’s ability to fight off illness.
- Mindfulness is good for our minds: It increases positive emotions while decreasing negative emotions and stress.
- Mindfulness helps to reduce symptoms of depression and has the potential to prevent a relapse.
- It helps the practitioner focus, improves memory and attention skills.
- It enhances marital relationships by creating more optimism between partners resulting in feeling emotionally closer and more accepting.
- It reduces pregnancy related anxiety and stress as well as depression.
- Mindfulness helps us with feelings of self-compassion
- There is evidence that teaching mindfulness in the schools reduces classroom behavior problems and aggression among students thus improving their ability to pay attention in class.
- Teachers trained in mindfulness are more positive and able to show more compassion and empathy to their students.
- Mindfulness helps health-care and mental health professionals cope with stress and positively connect with their patients.
- Mindfulness helps prisoners reduce anger, hostility, and mood disturbances.
- Mindfulness helps veterans reduce symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
- Mindfulness helps with the conservation of resources through the practice of mindful consumption.
*The points above are adapted from Mindfulness http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/mindfulness/definition
