As mindfulness becomes more and more prevalent in today’s world, I thought we’d explore
exactly what it means to be mindful. Mindfulness has many beneficial effects on our lives,
but what are we doing to cause those effects? Why does mindfulness affect us the way that
it does? In its simplest form, to be mindful means
to be aware of the thoughts, feelings, and sensations that arise within us in the present
moment. When we are mindful, we take a more objective view of the world and stop viewing
everything as it relates to us, or subjectively. We begin to identify our thoughts and feelings
as opposed to identifying with them. In this video, we’ll look at 3 practical
examples of what it means to be mindful. 1. Objective
To be mindful means to be objective. It’s to take a more watchful perspective on the
thoughts and emotions that arise within us, as opposed to instantly latching onto and
engaging with them. For example, imagine being at your family
thanksgiving when your 7 year old cousin randomly walks up and drinks out of your straw. This
immediately sparks anger inside of you as you can’t stand to drink after other people.
And plus, what in the heck is your aunt doing allowing this to happen? If you weren’t
being mindful, you’d open-up on your cousin and give him the discipline you think he deserves.
You’d simply engage with the feelings of anger it caused you and project that anger
onto him. In this case, you would be subject to your thoughts and emotions.
But had you taken an objective perspective on the same feeling anger that arose within
you, you’d have allowed yourself the chance to respond more mindfully. As opposed to identifying
with the anger and becoming mad, you would ask yourself why these feelings of anger are
growing inside of you. Doing so would give you time to consider things such as what you
were like when you were seven years old – being the hellacious child you were. You’d also
consider that your aunt hasn’t seen her siblings since last Christmas, and the last
thing she wants to do is run around holding her son’s hand.
When we are being mindful, we take a more objective view of the world and stop viewing
everything as it relates to us, or subjectively. We begin to identify our thoughts and feelings
as opposed to identifying with them. Taking an objective perspective on our thoughts changes
our relationship with them, as we are no longer their subject. Instead of instantly reacting
to them, we’ll sit back and respond to them. Instead of being them, we’ll watch them.
2. Conscious Operation To be mindful requires us to operate from
the conscious mind. The conscious mind’s role is to be aware of the present moment
and the sensory information we take in from it. It perceives things just as they are,
or objectively, which is why its operation is required to be mindful.
When we think about what we said yesterday or what we’ve got to do tomorrow, we are
operating from the subconscious mind. That’s because the subconscious mind is correlated
with our sense of identity. It is correlated with the subjective aspects of our perception,
hence the name ‘subconscious mind’. And when we remove its lens, we open ourselves
up to the perception of a world that is much more objective and much less about us. We
begin to perceive things as they are - before they pass through the filters of our subconscious
mind – instead of how they relate to us. To perform an activity solely from the seat
of the conscious mind is to perform it mindfully, and to do this is simple. All you’ve got
to do is complete one of your many day-to-day tasks differently than you’ve always done
it, and the easiest way to do this is to use your weak hand. If you write with your right
hand, then simply writing your name out left-handed requires heavy conscious operation and thus,
mindful activity. The same goes for brushing your teeth or throwing a ball. Heck, you could
even just walk backwards to the fridge! 3. Learning New Things
I explained in the last example that we operate from the subconscious mind anytime we do something
that we have experience with. A much more conscious, mindful approach is required for
us to learn anything new, though. When we don’t have any experience with the task
at hand there is no knowledge held in our subconscious mind for us to reference. We
can’t divert our attention inward to find our answer, as it’s not there. Instead,
we’ve got to divert all our focused attention outward – into the present moment. We’ve
got to operate through awareness as opposed to through experience. And in many ways, that’s
exactly what it means to be mindful… to move your sense of identity from a collection
of past experiences to the awareness of the present moment. To detach yourself from past
experiences and open yourself up to new ones. To learn something new instead of sticking
to what you know. Subscribe to the Mindful if you Enjoyed the
video! Wait… I Mean…