JA: I hear this thing call mindfulness. Does it just mean that I should be careful like a warning to ‘mind my head’ if I am walking under a beam?
MrOWO: Yes and no. Yes, don’t go thinking about something else and get a knock on your head. No, because it also requires you to retain that sense of awareness of your self, not just of your body but of your mind too while you conduct your life daily activities. Mindfulness is very simply an awareness of our momentary state in each action that we take. The importance of this concept is reflected in the response of a learned teacher in his last moments when asked by his students what last great message he had. His answer was in just three simple words - ‘Awareness, awareness and awareness’.
With awareness, we are mindful of our thoughts, emotions and consciousness. We become detached from our emotions which like our senses are just momentary feelings which will come and go. They are reactions to a stimuli. Our five senses will contact with the external stimuli and our emotions will react to these sensory inputs interpreted through our mind. It is the same with our random thoughts. Our emotions are also reactions to our thoughts. The emotions don’t last. The question is whether we act on these negative emotions. Since we know that the usual result of acting on our negative emotions is regret, being mindful allows us to see with clarity and to listen to the voice of consciousness for wisdom and right action.
JA: Are there practices which we could use in our daily life to make us more mindful?
MrOWO: There are several simple practices of mindfulness such as:
- Meditation - It does not have to be about sitting down cross legged. But should you be in the mood to sit on the floor, go ahead. That is formal meditation. Sitting and watching our thoughts, our body and the breath. Even in our actions we can retain that state of awareness. There is also Walking Meditation where we can choose to walk alone consciously with all our thoughts placed on each action we take while walking. We can eat in silence and taste each mouthful of food that we are chewing. Forget about multi tasking. That only encourages fragmented thinking unless you have got laser beam concentration available at the switch of a button.
- Do things alone sometimes - Take a walk in the park. Observe the patterns of clouds, the symmetry of nature, the perfect colour combination of flowers and the sound of the rain or the might of a storm. Have a meal by yourself. Stop at whatever you are doing and be aware of yourself by silently watching your breath for a few moments.
- Avoid impulsive behavior - Otherwise you are allowing your urges to dictate your actions. Having to check your mobile telephone immediately you hear a message beep. To rush to open a letter which has just arrived. To only start eating after saying a few words of thankfulness to Mother Nature. If you are mindful of your urges you can consciously choose when and how your response is going to be.
Dr Vin: Here is what Vedic selfwisdom suggests.Reflect on your daily events just before you go to bed. A quick rerun of about 5 to 10 minutes would be sufficient. You are not judging or trying to analyse each situation. It gives you the opportunity to view your actions from a position of calmness without you being caught up in any emotions of the day. You will have greater clarity of the implications of your daily actions. Your consciousness will reveal to you the actions that you have taken during the day which were wrongful or unwholesome. And when the events recur in the future, you will find that you are more mindful and prepared to give a chosen response.
