People often wonder if mindfulness is meditation & vice versa.
Bring mindful is all about anchoring ourself in the present moment. Being aware of the right here right now. What we are thinking. How we are feeling. With a sense of playful curiosity, non-judgement, self-forgiveness & self-acceptance.
Meditation is one way in which we can be more mindful but it is not essentially mindfulness.
When we meditate we can use our breath or body or sounds or an object as an anchor so when our mind wanders as it is likely to do, especially in early stages of learning to meditate, we can gently guide our attention back to these prompts. Eventually when we meditate, we may be able to let go of these anchors & just be.
Meditation is not about controlling our thoughts, we can’t stop our mind from doing what it does: thinking thoughts. But we can stop our thoughts from controlling us.
With mindfulness it’s more about noticing our mind has wandered. And choosing instead of getting swept away with whatever it is we are thinking about, ending up down the rabbit hole before we even know it, but to acknowledge & observe that train of thought, that feeling or emotion & gently anchoring ourselves back in the present moment using our breath or body, without judging the thought, feeling or emotion. Just accepting it. Sometimes being curious: ooooh that’s interesting…
We can practice mindfulness not just by meditating but also by trying informal practices. Bringing mindfulness into our everyday.
This can be simple things like walking mindfully, turning off the phone or better still leaving it at home, and being aware of our feet touching the ground, the sounds of the birds in the trees, the sun on our face instead of walking on automatic pilot.
Eating is another way in which we can practice mindfulness. Eating mindfully is a beautiful experience as we become so much more aware of the taste of the food & when we are full rather than shovelling it in mindlessly!
Whenever we do something we normally do habitually, in a slightly different way it helps bring us to the present moment. Try brushing your teeth with your other hand & see how much more present & aware you are doing it.
Eventually when we’ve been practicing mindfulness for a while we will gravitate to more mindful informal every day practices: standing in a queue & being present for a moment or two; coming back to ourselves whilst sitting at traffic lights instead of being irritated we missed the light.
We start to notice when we have drifted away with our thoughts & can ground ourselves back in the moment & create some distance between the thought & ourselves, watching them like clouds in the sky instead of getting trapped in the narrative.
This idea that we are not our thoughts, feelings or emotions, they don’t define us was incredibly liberating for me & so it was easy to grasp as a concept. But not for someone people, who feel that they are intrinsically their thoughts. A useful analogy for me was the mirror: you are not your reflection in the mirror, just as we are not our thoughts.
So the differentiation between mindfulness & meditation is subtle. As is the impact of these practices – there are no monumental lightening bolts from the heavens but they can be profound. Establishing a mindfulness or meditation practice is just that: a practice, it takes time & patience.
If you would like to learn more about mindfulness, what it is, how we can practice is, have some fun with some informal practices & delve into some more formal meditation styles, join me on Thursday at 7.15pm at The Health Hub in Evesham from April 4th. You can claim your first session for FREE by emailing me at alex@myananda.co.uk