Practicing Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the psychological process of bringing one's attention to experiences occurring in the present moment, which one can develop through the practice of meditation and through other training.
I’ve been learning a lot about mindfulness over the past few months including at yoga studios, meditation practices and a few lovely fellow travellers. It’s occurred to me about a month ago that I’m terrible at it. My mind is always a million other places when I’m doing menial and complicated tasks. I’m usually visualizing something in the future, or the potential outcome of some action that has nothing to do what I’m doing in that moment. Get me into meditation and I use it to solve my problems and sort out my to-do list.
There are so many ways to incorporate mindfulness into your daily routine, while you’re eating, brushing your teeth, doing dishes, meditating. There are endless moments where you can bring yourself back to the present and focusing on the current action.
Meditation especially is the best time to practice this technique.
When you’re meditating, the likelihood of you clearing you mind entirely is next to impossible. Your goal in meditation should be working towards staying mindful and in the moment. Focus on what’s happening now, in this moment. Close your eyes and take in what’s happening around you and the thoughts that may come up, but the trick is letting them go and not associating time or energy on them. You might hear whirring of a fan nearby, and you may be entirely focused on that and how annoying it is to take up your time and you can’t focus anymore and someone shut that off please before you lose your meditative calm. Try listening to it and acknowledging it as what it is, keeping you cool and a noise that out of your control. Any emotion you associate with the inanimate object is solely under your control.
Learn how to stay in the moment and practice focusing on what is under your control. I find myself sitting here in beautiful Bali and panicking about going home in 3 weeks. 3 WEEKS. I still have 3 weeks of travel and adventure, and I find myself focusing on whats happening in 3 weeks and spiralling from there on what might happen and how I worry all the work I’ve done over the past few months will be lost. So I snap myself back to the present moment and remind myself in this moment I am seated on my patio in Ubud, listening to the running water of a fountain, listening to calming music, In this exact moment, nothing is wrong, and any emotion I have on the potential outcome of my return home is purely hypothetical. I cannot control what actually happens and worrying what is going to happen is setting up expectations. Staying in the moment and focused on what I’m able to control in this moment, my breakfast choices, the yoga class I go to, If I go for a swim, helps me regain calm and presence in this moment.
I’m constantly practicing mindfulness and staying present. Focus on what is within your control and what is in the present moment. It’s difficult to do since our minds are usually going a million miles per hour and focused on the future, or something that has happened in the past, but staying present will make you a happier person. Realize that everything is impermanent, so even if this current moment isn’t healthy, happy or positive, things will always keep moving and changing.
Join me and let me know what you’re doing to incorporate mindfulness into your daily routine. Hopefully this rant on staying present has helped you in some way and changed just a little piece of your mindset. It’s a constant practice, but I promise it’s worth it!
Love E