Mindfulness: the New Buzz Word!

"Mindfulness" has become a new buzz word.

Meditation and mindfulness are like cogs on a wheel. They are part and parcel of awareness. Mindfulness is like the little sister of meditation. She needs only short, frequent exercise. The big brother, meditation, is like a bodybuilder who increases the weight and number of repetitions over time to gain muscular strength.

Someone new to meditation spends, say, five minutes paying attention to their breath. Over time that person is able to spend 20 minutes in and out of a singular focus. Both practices have similar benefits: reducing levels of cortisol and other stress hormones, lowering blood pressure and stress reactivity, as well as circulating youth-enhancing positive hormones.

In Daniel Goleman's LinkedIn article "What Mindfulness Is, and Isn't," he describes how our mind is designed to wander. Based on a Harvard study, Goleman writes, "In fact the mind is wired to wander about 50% of the time." This idea that successful meditation, or even successful mindfulness, is based on stopping the activity of the mind is erroneous and sets up a false expectation. We have all had the experience of being in the moment, in singular focus, not even hearing the sounds around us. When this happens, it is a lovely experience.

Meditators will tell us that the discipline of "sitting" for a named period of time is the key to successful meditation. Yes, the mind wanders. Yes, that one item on your to-do list suddenly becomes the most important detail of your life. However, the practice of letting that thought go, and letting the next thought go for that determined, set time, is what is key. The moment that you feel at peace, even for a few seconds, is the reward for your efforts.

It is how something makes us feel that is the true litmus test of the innate value of that activity. Even if we don't make time to sit and meditate, we can enhance our lives by being mindful. I have noticed that I repeat thoughts. If these are past or negative thoughts, I use a simple mindfulness technique I borrowed from Lisa Wimberger's Neurosculpting. First, I notice that I am entertaining a repeated thought. In my mind I spell out the word "R-E-L-E-A-S-E" and tap my body with my non-dominant hand. It is a simple technique to disassociate from the non-productive, repeated thought. You can decide to use the word "release," "let go," "enough," whatever word has the most meaning to you.

If mindfulness or meditation are interests, I highly recommend Jon Kabat-Zinn's Sounds True audio program "The Mindfulness Revolution." He describes the ability to be mindful as fundamental to the human experience and not an anomaly. He says, "When we use the word 'mindfulness' we are referring to a way of being, a way of paying attention that leads to a more robust capacity to live inside of our awareness as opposed to being caught up in discursive thinking and emotional reactivity, which is often blinding. My work over the last 32 years demonstrates that regular people are capable of training to a point that transforms the way they actually are in their internal and external experience." He says it all so perfectly!

Whispers of the Breath Diva:

In this moment I am alive, awake and aware!