BE MINDFUL

Don't you feel overwhelmed by the number of times you can find the word mindful or mindfulness on social media or in the pages of magazines or newspapers? The truth is that this term is spreading very fast through the net and does not miss us.

Merriam-Webster defines mindfulness as “the practice of maintaining a nonjudgmental state of heightened or complete awareness of one’s thoughts, emotions, or experiences on a moment-to-moment basis.” What it means, or mind is fully attending to what you are doing, what is happening and also where are you.

Normally, people's minds are always focused on concerns, what goes wrong, what we don't have, what we lack. It is easy for us to focus in the anger, the regrets than in the good things that are happening now, in the present. This state of being nowhere, when you are not in the present moment it’s called forgetfulness -you are there but you are not there.

When we are not being mindful, we speak without thinking. Our emotions get out of our control. We are worrying about the future or regretting the past. We feel the victim of circumstances, events, and others.

But we are not concern about this state but its opposite, mindfulness. Being mindful or mindfulness means that your mind is where your body is, they are connected, they are one. It is the energy that help us recognize the happiness that is already present in our lives.

We have to be conscious that being mindful is not an effort, it's a way to enjoy ourselves and what is surrounding us. To become mindful, you have to enjoy every step. At the end you will realize that this will help you to find yourself, your own peace and happiness and the one that is around you.

“While mindfulness is innate, it can be cultivated through proven techniques, particularly seated, walking, standing, and moving meditation (it’s also possible lying down but often leads to sleep); short pauses we insert into everyday life; and merging meditation practice with other activities, such as yoga or sports.”

You will learn to stop talking. In any way it can be understood. Silent in the outside and in the inside- the thinking. It is very important to know how to shut up our mental discourse. As Thich Nhat Hanh says, “Real silence is the cessation of talking—of both the mouth and of the mind”.

We are going to explain the meaning with an example. You are in a beautiful café, and the waiter offer you a very good coffee, wonderfully scent. If your mind is not in the café and even less in the coffee, you are not going to enjoy the coffee. You need to learn to focus on what you are doing, now in the coffee. Be concentrated on it so you will discover the fragrance, the flavour, the special touches the coffee is offering to you.

To learn and starting being mindful, you can start with the follow exercises:

1. Breathe. The exercise is to learn and identify the in-breath as in-breath and the out-breath as out-breath. When you breathe in, you know that this is your in-breath. When you breathe out, you are mindful that this is your out-breath. What is recognizing your in-breath is your mind.

2. Concentration.

3. Awareness of your body

4. Releasing tension

5. Walking  meditation