How fully alive are you now? How aware are you of your body, mind, and spirit?
Bring your awareness to your body.
Feel the sensation of your body pressing against the surface of its support (a chair, the floor, etc.). Notice areas of tension in your body.
Bring your awareness to your mind. Notice your thoughts…
Notice your feelings…
Notice what’s “on (or in) your mind.”
Bring your awareness to your spirit. Notice your spirit. How do you experience your spirit? What is its nature?
What did you notice?
Most often when called to experience the present moment you become aware of sensations, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings that you weren’t conscious of before. You mind was somewhere else, perhaps worrying about the past or future. You were only partially conscious.
Mindfulness is a simple disciplined way to be present to this moment—to experience life fully.
What would you do if you only had 6 months to live?
Here is what one woman did after learning she had terminal cancer. She went to a Zen master for advice. She sobbed as she told him she had only 6 months to live. He listened carefully, and then replied…
“You are wrong.
Both you and I have only this moment to live.”
Instantly she realized the truth of his message—a truth for all of us. No one knows what the next moment will bring and the past is only a memory. She dedicated herself to being more conscious of each precious moment of her life.
Wondrously, her incurable condition was cured. Her death sentence lifted. Did mindfulness cure her? We cannot know, yet she is now full of life and grateful for its every moment.
How is Mindfulness Meditation Different?
Mindfulness meditation like other forms of meditation helps you relax, improve physical symptoms, and live a more satisfying and peaceful life.
It differs in that you pay attention to thoughts and sensations instead of ignoring them or letting them pass away.
With mindfulness meditation, you acknowledge and accept current reality. You recognize, accept, and experience thoughts and sensations as they arise. You do not analyze them, or worry about them. You do not judge them. You just accept them as they are.
By observing them without becoming attached to them or judging them, you can see more clearly what is on your mind. You can note thoughts and feelings rise and recede. You can note your reactions to them. You become aware of preferences, inaccuracies, and attachments.
You gain insight into what drives you, your views, and aspirations.
The goal is to become more aware of yourself and what is happening in your own body and mind at the moment it is happening. It has many health benefits. The University of Massachusetts offers mindfulness meditation in their stress reduction program.
Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center
Patients enrolled in the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center are taught to meditate 45 minutes a day for at least 6 days a week using mindfulness meditation. The patients receive standard medical treatments along with mindfulness meditation.
Through mindfulness, they teach patients to face, accept, and even welcome tension, stress, and pain. They learn to accept all mind states as they occur: fear, anger, frustration insecurity, disappointment, unworthiness, and others. They find acknowledging present reality is the fist step to transforming it.
They measure health indicators before and after completion of the 8-week program. After the program, patients reported sharp drops in pain, medical symptoms, and psychological problems such as anxiety, depression, and hostility.
Patients find it so beneficial that the majority continued their meditation practice after completion of the program.
Mindfulness Meditation Benefits
Improved health attitudes including self-confidence and motivation to take better care of self.
Increased confidence in ability to respond to stressful situations.
Increased sense of control over life.
Increased ability to view stressful events as challenges versus threats.
Greater sense of meaning in life.
Decreased anxiety and panic attacks.
Decreased depression.
Decreased headaches.
Helps people with diminished lung capacity by reducing the panicky feeling when short of breath thus increasing confidence in controlling episodes and reducing ER visits.
Helps healing of psoriasis (skin disease with a stress component).
Helps decrease chronic pain suffering.
Pain sufferers are taught to observe pain, breathe with it and eventually to relax into it by attending to pain sensations without running from them.
With practice, they come to see physical discomfort as separate from negative emotions and thoughts such as “My back pain is killing me.”
With mindfulness, they note the thought and focus on the present moment asking, “right now is this pain killing me? The answer is usually “no.”
It helps people respond to the actual sensation as it is in the moment versus the fear that it will be worse or uncontrolled.
Promotes a sense of connection with others and the environment. It enhances the sense of being a part of rather than separate from the flow of life—a part of a large whole.
Mindfulness Meditation Types
You can practice mindfulness meditation formally or informally. With formal practice, you use a specific technique to help you stay focused in the moment.
Formal practice develops your concentration ability, much as exercise practice builds muscles. It supports and strengthens your ability to be mindful in daily life.
With informal practice, you simply remind yourself to be in the present moment while doing activities. You notice when you are distracted and call yourself back to focusing on what you are doing—your experience in the moment.
You appreciate the love you feel for your child when you are with your child versus thinking about your work .
You feel the breeze and the sunlight on your skin and note the beauty of the trees when you walk versus worrying about something from your past.
We explore specific techniques in articles such as
"Body Scan: Tune-In to Your Body's Wisdom.""Yoga"
can also be a form of mindfulness meditation when done slowly and gently while focusing your mind on your breath and body sensations.
These techniques offer different paths to the same destination.
Mindfulness is like a paradox:
It is easy. You simply pay attention to yourself—what you are doing, your thoughts, and sensations.
It is hard. It takes discipline and time to build your concentration—undo old patterns of being.
Many people find it helpful to start with a teacher or join with a group.
You cannot fail with mindfulness meditation. You are simply noticing the state you are already in—your state of being.
As long as you practice, concentration deepens. As concentration deepens, you are more present in the moment, more calm, more aware. New insights may come.
Why not begin now? Simply remind yourself to notice what is happening right now.Be fully alive with mindfulness meditation.
Resources
You Tube Video with Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Minfulness Stress Reduction and Healing."
Jon Kabat-Zinn, “Mindfulness Meditation: Health Benefits of an Ancient Buddhist Practice,” Daniel Goleman and Joel Gurin, eds, Mind Body Medicine: How to Use Your Mind for Better Health (New York: Consumer Reports Books, 1993).
Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness: A Handbook on Meditation, (Boston: Beacon Press,1987).
