Mindfulness is simply our innate ability to pay attention from moment to moment, in each and every moment. It’s that simple.
Our meditation practice increases the amount of time we summon our ability to pay attention from moment to moment in each and every moment.
With consistent practice, over time we inherently feel less stressed, more focused, more attuned to our everyday lives.
It strengthens the sharpness of our minds to focus on a particular point or diffuse into Spirit/Mystery/Suchness, and it increases our awareness of particular aspects about ourselves and how we function (self-awareness).
Looking at sports players, we know that they practice and also have game time. Practice informs game time and, with the proper coaching, game time can inform how they practice. Symbiosis. One informs the other and then the other informs reciprocally. Mindfulness meditation is just that. When we commit to sitting/lying/standing/walking regularly in mindfulness, we are practicing our innate ability to pay attention. As we continue to practice, our ability to pay attention strengthens. We can hold our attention more accurately, more acutely, and hold more in our awareness, both in practice time and in our everyday lives. We may even begin to notice when we stop paying attention in our everyday lives, which will inform our meditation practice. Both working in unison, both in harmony.
Your mindfulness meditation practice is something you can start right now. Literally, right now.
Let's give it a try...
Whenever you are ready, take a moment wherever you are and simply pause. Allow yourself to take a look around. Give freedom to your head and neck to take in the full panorama of your location. It doesn’t matter if you are at the office, riding transport, sitting in a park, or reading in bed. I invite you to explore your world by doing a full 360 degree scan. This is less of an exercise in mapping out your world than it is allowing your head and neck to get a full range perspective. What’s the farthest you can look? What’s the closest? Simply look around in all directions, up and down, at all of the far things, all of the close things, and everything in between. Take some time to allow yourself to be curious about the world directly around you.
As you explore, you may also notice that this helps you feel more relaxed, more settled. Taking a moment to look around and reorient summons that ability to pay attention. It grabs our senses and puts them to good work. Once we begin to notice the world around us, with purpose, we recognize our situation a little bit better. We can expand our level of awareness around us and into our environment. We can become more curious about our world from a deeper and more resourced place.
Meditation can take various forms and has many lineages that trace back hundreds of years. There are many avenues to explore and deepen your practice that align with your values and interests.
What I’m teaching and advocating here is the basic fundamental practice of mindfulness, generally achieved through sitting or lying in stillness and quiet for a measured amount of time.
Practicing mindfulness is an important part of being a responsible digital citizen of our modern age. Relative to our collective human history, we spend a significant amount of time consuming information, facilitated by digital devices. Information overload is a common theme for people and a counterbalance to that is mindfulness. Practicing mindfulness allows our bodies to digest the information we are constantly processing, allowing our minds to be sharper when we return to our data-driven cultures. Practicing mindfulness provides time for our minds to quiet and our bodies to rest so we can be of more optimal health throughout the day. With consistent practice, over time we feel less stressed, more focused, more attuned to our everyday lives.
I hope you've enjoyed this article and found value as it applies to your everyday life.
Stay tuned for more articles and insights.
Cheers,
Brian Spear
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