How Can I Live Mindfully?
Living in mindfulness is a deeply personal and unique experience, each one so distinct from the other that it can never be generalized. That said, understanding what happens when we practice and live mindfully daily and how to make the most of it, makes it easier to learn and embody.
I was introduced to the concept of mindfulness at my first meditation retreat.
The meditation teacher often talked about the importance of living in the present moment and I always wondered how does one live mindfully?
So I started researching and asking around, but the best answer I got was from my yoga teacher… She said:
To live mindfully, you have to use your 5 senses and connect to what is happening in the present moment. You have to dwell in the NOW. This means, leave the past behind and the future ahead. It’s all about pausing before moving on to another action to observe how it feels, to be conscious.
In this regard, Christian André, psychotherapist, writes: “Life in full consciousness is simply those moments when you STOP.”
In this article, I share with you my journey and the observations I’ve been able to make/discover along the way, keep on reading!
How can I bring awareness into my everyday life?
Some time ago, I started running again.
Like every time I went out, I got dressed, took my iPod, put on my headphones to hear my training playlist, and went out.
It was one of those days when my head was full.
One of those days when I was questioning my choices, wondering if the path I was taking was the right one, I headed to a small wooded park near my home.
Soon after I started my run, it started raining like hell!
The seconds added up and I could feel the rain getting heavier, the thoughts in my head were screaming louder and louder while at the same time the music was trying to bury my thoughts… it was exhausting!
I stopped, took off my headphones, and “paused” for a moment…
At that very moment, I chose to create a distance between this storm that was going on inside me, and the storm that was going on all around me.
I took a full breath and observed.
I took the time to feel the water on my face.
To feel my breath and the contrast of the warmer air with the cooler rain.
I started running again and took care to feel every step I took.
To feel the pressure under my feet, the muscles in my legs with each step.
And the inner storm ceased and was replaced by an inner emptiness, calm.
I thanked the storm outside for bringing me back “here and now”.
I experienced that day how to live in full consciousness.
How can I be emotionally mindful?
You can be emotionally mindful keeping control of your thoughts and emotions.
There are times when it feels like a storm is brewing in our heads.
A moment when the internal discourse is so intense that we feel cut off from the outside world.
Thoughts and emotions are part of us and allow us to interpret and make sense of the world around us.
Loving, feeling joy, remembering our first kiss or a successful event we are proud of, are all part of the good things about thinking and feeling emotions.
But the danger with our emotions and thoughts is that we can get carried away by them.
Thoughts and emotions are not threatening as such, in fact, they are an amazingly powerful guiding system.
When we become conscious of what we are thinking, then we can realize how the emotion is being created (as a direct manifestation of that thought).
That’s when we can make the conscious decision of changing what we are thinking altogether (in case of a bad emotional response) or fuel it (in case of a positive emotional response), also known as INSPIRATION.
If the thoughts creating the emotion are too powerful, meaning they are thoughts we keep on thinking regularly, they are called beliefs.
Without practice, it’s hard to stop thinking about a belief. In the end, that’s something we believe to be TRUE! How can we not think about it if it’s TRUE?!
In these cases (and we are referring to thoughts/beliefs that produce negative emotions), when we are unable to think about something else and take it out of our head, a good alternative is to soothe that thought.
Soothing means, making it less negative.
We do this by being kinder with ourselves and realizing we are divine beings, that the universe conspires in our favor, and that the contrast that we live in our daily life is there to give us clarity and inspiration for new things to come.
What does it mean to live mindfully?
Living mindfully is being in the present moment.
It’s about accepting what is presented to you, for what it is, without judgment, without trying to make sense of it or interpret what is happening.
Mindfulness is not there to make us feel guilty or to remind us that we should be happier!
Mindfulness is there to allow us to observe things as they are, without wanting to change anything, be it a fact, an emotion, or a thought.
It gives us a chance to distance ourselves from the feeling to become the feeler.
It is by observing things as they are in the here and now that we can stop the identification with the emotion or thought and become the thinker of the thought, the feeler of the emotion.
Free from its grip, only observing it as-is.
How do you dwell in the present moment?
Too often our thoughts are oriented towards the past or the future.
But what would happen if we stopped to take a few deep breaths and only observe what is happening in the present moment?
What would happen if we took the time to smell what is around us, observe the colors without naming them, feel the steps we take without measuring them?
Feel your hands, you are in the now.
Feel the air coming in and out from your nostrils, you are in the now.
Here whatever is ‘sounding’ in your environment, you are in the now.
The moment you name what you are hearing, you are thinking about the now.
Hear what’s around you like you would hear a music composition.
The dog barking, the air conditioner, the things being moved around, the steps of someone entering the room, your breath.
Hear without trying to make sense of it all, here it as it comes. Just as when you listen to a piece of music playing.
“Mindfulness means directing our attention in a certain way, that is: deliberately, at the right time, without value judgments”. – Jon Kabat-Zinn
In conclusion
Living with a clear conscience means accepting to live in the here and now.
In other words, you have to leave the past behind and the future ahead.
During these moments, we realize that our thoughts are less frightening and our emotions less invasive.
That having pain is not pleasant, but that it lasts a while and that other things can overlap in our day despite the pain.
That being happy and taking the time to experience it allows us to be more aware of the successes and moments of pleasure in our lives.
And most importantly, it allows us to connect with ourselves and understand what makes us vibrate to choose ourselves every day with each step we take.
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