What does it mean to be Mindful? What does it mean to be Mindless?

Mindfulness is best defined as a nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment.
At its core, Mindfulness is the engagement of attention and awareness. Mindfulness teacher and author, Eckart Tolle says, “Paying attention to the here and now requires intention, not force.” Mindfulness practice allows us to pay attention with awareness to our thoughts, feelings, emotions, sensations, and reactions without attempting to fix that awareness; whatever it is. Vietnamese monk, writer, and renowned Mindfulness expert Thich Nhat Hah, describes Mindfulness as a way of “keeping one’s consciousness alive to the present reality”.

When we are mindful, we are aware, and we are experiencing the present moment with acceptance. This takes practice, and it is an embodied way of being and acting in the world.

Experiencing Mindfulness can be elusive if we don’t know what it is or how to cultivate and use it in our own life. So how can we develop awareness and be present to our experiences with deep acceptance and non-judgment?

Mindlessness is a state of not being present.
What do we mean by that? We are not saying we are mindless people. We are saying that we often spend most of our time lost in our memories and fantasies of what we think our past should have been, or what we think our future should be. Both these states of consciousness are all too common and harmful physically, mentally, and emotionally. We find that meaningful and purposeful living requires us to notice the openings between our reactions and have choice and freedom.

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space, in that space lies our power to choose our response, in our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Victor Frankl

Have you ever been distracted to the point where you don’t know how you got to where you are? If you talk on the cell phone while walking, do you sometimes look around and wonder, “How did I get here?” Your mind was concentrating on the conversation; your body automatically doing the walking. 

You could hurt yourself (or others) if you experience this too often. Distracted by interpersonal events, we do things automatically without thinking (Mindlessness). Without guidance from our conscious mind, all sorts of things happen in our life. 

We tend to rush through life, skipping over the present moments: Mindlessly rushing from one event to the next. We hurry into a coffee shop and order the same coffee without thinking. We eat at a restaurant and are so distracted by our conversations or other conversations that we don’t take the time to savor what we eat. We seem to constantly strive to be in that all-encompassing space of what we believe is the next best or next most important thing in our life.

Mindfulness vs. Mindlessness means taking the time to “stop and smell the roses.”
It is an old cliché but one that fits Mindfulness perfectly.

When was the last time you stopped and experienced life? Are you focusing on what you are reading right now? Are you wondering what you are going to do in an hour, this afternoon or tomorrow?

Stop what you are doing right now and think about what matters in your life. Think about a memory that you treasure:
Are you with someone?
Who?
Are you on vacation?
Is it a significant life event?
Whatever it is, thoroughly think about, feel, and experience the moment.

In thinking about this moment, were you thinking about the past or imagining the future? To fully appreciate moments in your life requires you to be fully present and notice what is happening in the here and now.

These moments are our moments of Mindfulness. When we notice everything around and “in” us, and we are aware that we are in the present remembering the past, we are Mindful.

Mindfulness means being present in our life. It helps us become friends with our mind, our body, and the occurring world.

The quality of the instruction strongly determines the effects of Mindfulness. It is important to understand that Mindfulness practice may intensify negative or unpleasant experiences. In fact, Mindfulness is about learning to recognize, allow, and be with all our experiences, whether pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. It is in only this way that we can begin to exercise choice and responsiveness in our lives.

Mindfulness is not a quick fix. For Mindfulness to be effective-like developing any new habit- continuous practice is required.

Experiment with the enclosed beginner’s exercise.

Breathing and Noting
Breathing and Noting is a popular practice among students of mindfulness across the world. Settle the body into a comfortable posture and allow the eyes to close.Focus your awareness on the breath.You can start with a counting exercise if you find it helpful.
Choosing one location in the body, use the simple terms in and out to note each inhale and exhale.
Continue for five minutes or more, until the mind begins to settle.Staying with the inhale and exhale, bring your awareness to the body in general. After the exhale, note one place in the body where you can feel a sensation.For example, you may note the following:“In, out, foot”; “In, out, chest”; and so on.
After five minutes, incorporate the sensation of hearing.Continue to note the inhalation and exhalation; then note a feeling in the body or a sound. Next, open up to the thinking mind.As you have been doing, continue resting with the breath.As you breathe out, open up to any thoughts, feelings in the body, and sounds.Finally, include feeling tones.
You now are resting with the breath and noting any bodily sensations, sounds, thoughts, and feeling tones after each exhale.

“Mindfulness helps us freeze the frame so that we can become aware of our sensations and experiences as they are, without the distorting coloration of socially conditioned responses or habitual reactions.” Bhante Henepola Gunaratana