The Oxford English Dictionary defines Mindfulness as:
Mindfulness /ˈmʌɪn(d)f(ʊ)lnəs/
1. the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something.
2. a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.
It is easy for our mind to become distracted multitasking in our 24/7 stress bubble, listening to an internal dialogue of self criticism that prevents us from noticing the good things that happen in our lives and failing to hear what our bodies are telling us. We are either regretting the past, rehearsing for the future and not present in our own lives. When we learn to live in the present moment we learn to step away from our habitual thoughts and unconscious emotional and physiological reactions to everyday events, and see things as they really are.
The objective of mindfulness is to achieve a relaxed, non-judgmental awareness of our thoughts, feelings and sensations, switching off of our automatic pilot and maintaining a direct knowing of what is going on inside and outside ourselves, moment by moment. We become aware of the world around us and notice and observe our thoughts and feelings and wake up to the physical sensations of things.
With its origin in the 2500 year old teaching of the Buddha, "Mindfulness", is the English translation of the Pali term "Sati" and from Sanskrit "Smṛti", and refers to "Right Mindfulness", the seventh element of the Noble Eightfold Path. (Translated as "nian" 念 in Chinese, "nen" in Japanese and "trenpa" in Tibetan).
The Noble Eightfold Path
1. Right Understanding
2. Right Thought
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration
The Noble Eightfold Path can be divided into three sections elements 1 and 2 is the Wisdom with in the Noble Eightfold Path, whilst elements 3,4,5 and 6 fulfil the section - Morality. Elements 7. Right Mindfulness and 8. Right Concentration form the third section - Meditation. For 2500 years within its teaching, Buddhism has never proposed beliefs of the supernatural or transcendent, but rather is concerned with feelings, emotions, sensations, and cognition of the causes of suffering and in doing so, offers a practice: the cultivation of cognitive, emotional, and physical practices to bring about change. Whilst the benefits of meditation, (and therefore Mindfulness and Concentration), have been known and practiced for thousands of years in the Buddhist tradition, it is only through the teachings of monastics such as Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, that the benefits of "Mindfulness" has been brought to the western attention.
But it is to practitioners such as Kabat-Zin, Teasdale, Seagal and Williams et al, who in the late 1970's, are credited with popularising mindfulness and putting scientific meat on traditional Buddhist bones, through the development of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme's to help with conditions as diverse as chronic pain, heart disease, anxiety, psoriasis, sleep problems and depression.
It is only through focusing one's awareness and experiencing the present moment with mindfulness that we encourage the regular practice of mindfulness in our daily lives. Accepting life is only as long as the space between heartbeats, we can focus and learn to live fully in the present moment non-judgmentally. Assuming a heartbeat of 60 beats a minute, then we have 3,600 opportunities per hour, (or 86,400 opportunities a day), to experience a present moment. The Japanese have an expression "Ichi-go ichi-e" (一期一会 "one time, one meeting"), that reminds us that each "present moment" is unique and never to be repeated.
Mindfulness-Moments.
Everything we do or say, everything….. can be done with mindfulness, with total concentration, focusing on the present moment, (this heart beat), when we loose the present moment and we are aware of it … … come back to the breath, relax into your breathing….. focus. Mindful moments will vary in length from a few seconds to many minutes and some mindfulness moments will stand out over others, the most important thing is focus on that one object, when you listen to the ships foghorn, "Listen to the ships foghorn" when you watch Great Tits dancing in catkins, "watch! Great Tits dancing in catkins" and if the mind wonders come back to your breathing. When you walk….. only walk. When you do the dishes…. only do the dishes.
At the end of the day reflecting on the days mindfulness moments and distilling one mindful moment to a short sentence, we allow the opportunity to review and record a mindful moment. By concentrating on our breathing whilst writing about mindfulness moment's, the very act of writing becomes an act of practicing mindfulness.
(Example of a week of recording Mindfulness Moments).
Monday's Mindfulness Moment:
"Mist and the mournful sound of ships foghorns"
Tuesday's Mindfulness Moment:
"Feeling the emotion's when seeing my wife after 6 months being apart"
Wednesday's Mindfulness Moment:
"Great Tits dancing in hazel catkins"
Thursday's Mindfulness Moment:
"Watching clouds scud across a winter blue sky"
Friday's Mindfulness Moment:
"Warmed by the smile that says Thank You"
Saturday's Mindfulness Moment:
"The sound of rain on the window's"
Sunday's Mindfulness Moment:
"The Stillness in early morning meditation"
It is easy for our mind to become distracted multitasking in our 24/7 stress bubble, listening to an internal dialogue of self criticism that prevents us from noticing the good things that happen in our lives and failing to hear what our bodies are telling us. We are either regretting the past, rehearsing for the future and not present in our own lives. When we learn to live in the present moment we learn to step away from our habitual thoughts and unconscious emotional and physiological reactions to everyday events, and see things as they really are.
The objective of mindfulness is to achieve a relaxed, non-judgmental awareness of our thoughts, feelings and sensations, switching off of our automatic pilot and maintaining a direct knowing of what is going on inside and outside ourselves, moment by moment. We become aware of the world around us and notice and observe our thoughts and feelings and wake up to the physical sensations of things.
With its origin in the 2500 year old teaching of the Buddha, "Mindfulness", is the English translation of the Pali term "Sati" and from Sanskrit "Smṛti", and refers to "Right Mindfulness", the seventh element of the Noble Eightfold Path. (Translated as "nian" 念 in Chinese, "nen" in Japanese and "trenpa" in Tibetan).
The Noble Eightfold Path
1. Right Understanding
2. Right Thought
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration
The Noble Eightfold Path can be divided into three sections elements 1 and 2 is the Wisdom with in the Noble Eightfold Path, whilst elements 3,4,5 and 6 fulfil the section - Morality. Elements 7. Right Mindfulness and 8. Right Concentration form the third section - Meditation. For 2500 years within its teaching, Buddhism has never proposed beliefs of the supernatural or transcendent, but rather is concerned with feelings, emotions, sensations, and cognition of the causes of suffering and in doing so, offers a practice: the cultivation of cognitive, emotional, and physical practices to bring about change. Whilst the benefits of meditation, (and therefore Mindfulness and Concentration), have been known and practiced for thousands of years in the Buddhist tradition, it is only through the teachings of monastics such as Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, that the benefits of "Mindfulness" has been brought to the western attention.
But it is to practitioners such as Kabat-Zin, Teasdale, Seagal and Williams et al, who in the late 1970's, are credited with popularising mindfulness and putting scientific meat on traditional Buddhist bones, through the development of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme's to help with conditions as diverse as chronic pain, heart disease, anxiety, psoriasis, sleep problems and depression.
It is only through focusing one's awareness and experiencing the present moment with mindfulness that we encourage the regular practice of mindfulness in our daily lives. Accepting life is only as long as the space between heartbeats, we can focus and learn to live fully in the present moment non-judgmentally. Assuming a heartbeat of 60 beats a minute, then we have 3,600 opportunities per hour, (or 86,400 opportunities a day), to experience a present moment. The Japanese have an expression "Ichi-go ichi-e" (一期一会 "one time, one meeting"), that reminds us that each "present moment" is unique and never to be repeated.
Mindfulness-Moments.
Everything we do or say, everything….. can be done with mindfulness, with total concentration, focusing on the present moment, (this heart beat), when we loose the present moment and we are aware of it … … come back to the breath, relax into your breathing….. focus. Mindful moments will vary in length from a few seconds to many minutes and some mindfulness moments will stand out over others, the most important thing is focus on that one object, when you listen to the ships foghorn, "Listen to the ships foghorn" when you watch Great Tits dancing in catkins, "watch! Great Tits dancing in catkins" and if the mind wonders come back to your breathing. When you walk….. only walk. When you do the dishes…. only do the dishes.
At the end of the day reflecting on the days mindfulness moments and distilling one mindful moment to a short sentence, we allow the opportunity to review and record a mindful moment. By concentrating on our breathing whilst writing about mindfulness moment's, the very act of writing becomes an act of practicing mindfulness.
(Example of a week of recording Mindfulness Moments).
Monday's Mindfulness Moment:
"Mist and the mournful sound of ships foghorns"
Tuesday's Mindfulness Moment:
"Feeling the emotion's when seeing my wife after 6 months being apart"
Wednesday's Mindfulness Moment:
"Great Tits dancing in hazel catkins"
Thursday's Mindfulness Moment:
"Watching clouds scud across a winter blue sky"
Friday's Mindfulness Moment:
"Warmed by the smile that says Thank You"
Saturday's Mindfulness Moment:
"The sound of rain on the window's"
Sunday's Mindfulness Moment:
"The Stillness in early morning meditation"
Leon Edwards
© The Stillness Project
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