Mindfulness
Mindfulness is an attempt at being present while trying to be an observer of what’s happening inside of and around us. In the core understanding of mindfulness, thoughts and feelings that arise for us don’t need to guide our behavior; they’re mostly there to be felt rather than suppressed. Mindfulness doesn’t always have to be in the form of meditation, it can also be applied in our day-to-day lives by not getting caught up questioning where every feeling or thought comes from. However, this state of awareness usually develops naturally through practices of meditation.
Being mindful is very much related to the way we act and respond to our external environment as it improves our ability to interpret our surroundings without judgment. It provides us the space and calm to think clearly, even amidst crises. It can help us understand the underlying reasons for whatever we may be feeling whether that be anger, sadness, happiness and more. While eating, walking, and even talking with a loved one, we can try to be more mindful and be totally present in the moment by taking a break from our thoughts about the past or future. Regular practice of mindfulness, therefore, can make us more aware of our feelings and thoughts, helping us use our internal resources for our benefit.
Mindfulness is an attitude and a state of being, revolving around important concepts such as, patience, gratitude, and acceptance.
Mindfulness is not to be mistaken as being positive all of the time. It is not a practice that seeks to exchange the bad for the good in life. Rather, it is about being aware of and present in the current moment, no matter what’s happening. One common way to practice mindfulness is through meditation.
Related Categories
Mindful Driving
Daniel Kahneman is a well-known Nobel-prize winner psychologist, who is interested in behavioral economics and decision-making processes.
Meditative Mind
It’s often mentioned during mindfulness exercises that their effects are not only valid during practice but also beyond, when we’re going about our everyday lives.
Mindfulness for Beginners
In the simplest of terms, mindfulness means being aware of the present moment and encompasses a state of mind and way of living that goes beyond meditation.
Mindful Eating
Mindfulness means being present in the moment, noticing the sensations, feelings, and thoughts that arise without judgment. It’s both a practice and a way of life that can be applied to all parts of our daily activities, such as eating.
Mindfulness in Schools
Studies show that mindfulness has a major positive impact on education. An experiment conducted at Harvard University indicated that teaching mindfulness to students helped to reduce their stress levels and improve their attention.
Mindfulness Exercises
Mindfulness is a broad term that has a theoretical background rooted both in ancient thinking as well as modern science.
Mindfulness Activities
“If while washing dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not ‘washing the dishes to wash the dishes.’ What’s more, we are not alive during the time we are washing the dishes.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf,” - Jon Kabat-Zinn from his book Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life.
Mindfulness and Psychology
The term “psychology” was first used in 1590, but it took three centuries for psychology to become a science. Back then, psychology was a subdomain under philosophy until the year 1879 when Wilhelm Wundt, a famous scientist, established an experimental psychology lab in Leipzig, and paved the way for psychology to become a scientific field.
Benefits of Mindfulness
As with most popular trends, mindfulness also has many admirers and many critics. With its roots in ancient cultures and supported by recent scientific evidence in both the academic and applied realm, there’s quite a lot of information out there about the merits of mindfulness.
Mindful Breathing
We are alive as long as we breathe. Breathing is essential for us, so much so that that’s where our spirit, thought to be our essence by some, gets its name. The term “spirit” comes from the Latin word “Spiritus,” which means breath.
What Is Mindfulness?
As with everything, practicing mindfulness and seeing its long-term, transformative effects in our lives is only possible if we integrate this practice into our everyday, turning it into a habit. There are many ways to practice mindfulness other than meditation, but let’s start with that one first.
How To Be Happy
We all want to be happy, right? But the source of happiness and the ability to maintain it can be the tricky part. It’s not possible to be happy all the time. Think about it this way, if we were happy all the time, then what would happiness mean?
How To Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness is often mistaken for a practice that’s solely meditative, but meditation isn’t the only want to cultivate mindfulness. Mindfulness is an approach and a perspective and, as such, it can be practiced through being aware of whatever we’re doing moment to moment.
Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness meditation is a practice that we cultivate to become more aware of the present moment, of our surroundings, and of our own bodily sensations and thoughts.
