Mindfulness is the fundamental skill of being fully present at any moment in everything that happens to us, around and inside, in the body, feelings and mind.
To better understand what awareness is, let's first understand what it means to lack. We are often “absent” in our life, we are not very good at noticing the good things that we have, we are not very good at hearing body signals, we are unable to cope with difficult emotions, we poison our lives with self-criticism or stress. We are constantly distracted from what is right now, habitually being in the mind, remembering the past or planning the future. Research shows that in an abstract state, in a state of absence, we spend almost half of the day (1), completely unaware of what is really happening around and within us. In other words, we operate on autopilot.
If you've ever missed your metro stop, couldn't remember where you put your keys, wanted to eat only a few cookies, but “woke up” with an empty package, couldn't stop thinking about a situation that had already passed or hadn't happened for hours, missed the opportunity to experience a beautiful sunset while being annoyed with a dead smartphone battery, or acting under the influence of emotions that they later regretted - then you know what I'm talking about.
Well, mindfulness helps to be more in touch with life, to be more adequate and have a good memory … Great, but is there anything else?
Yes, being in the present moment makes us happier and psychologically healthy - as both modern researchers from the world's best scientific centers and ancient spiritual traditions agree. For example, mindfulness makes it easier to cope or even completely eradicate anxiety, stress and depression, less dependence on bad habits, reduces the number of negative emotions and their impact on our life and behavior. Mindfulness helps to be more attentive in relationships, develops emotional intelligence and gives more empathy and compassion (2), allows you to better understand and accept yourself and others.
What's more, mindfulness has a positive effect on physical health as well. For example, as a result of the practice of mindfulness, immunity increases - the body's ability to cope with various viral diseases (3) - as well as the risk of cardiovascular diseases decreases, blood pressure normalizes, aging of brain cells slows down (4, 5) and the development of diseases associated with general aging of the body (6).
Finally, through the practice of mindfulness, you can become more successful in work and study (7, 8), since it affects memory, the ability to concentrate and focus on what you really need (9), helps to make more balanced and adequate decisions, and improves cognitive ability.
All this looks like some kind of magical miracle cure that makes almost any side of life better, if not for one clarification:
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In order for mindfulness to “work” to achieve lasting positive change in all of the above areas, regular competent practice is necessary, and this practice - the practice of mindfulness - must be made part of your daily life.
You can do it yourself, or you can do it with an individual instructor or in a group. The practice of mindfulness has only recently begun to gain popularity in the Russian-speaking world, but now there are several projects of colleagues and like-minded people - teachers and trainers of mindfulness - dedicated to its development in all areas of life, from conscious work with emotions or physical pain, to conscious relationships or sports.
What does regular mindfulness practice mean?
Mindfulness practice is of two types:
1. Formal, when we deal only with it. In this case, it looks like certain concentration exercises that we do while sitting, lying down or while walking.
2. And informal, when we develop awareness in application to any daily activities, be it making tea, washing windows or communicating with a loved one. In this case, we do everything the same as usual, but a little more carefully, with a sense of presence, clarity and openness.
Actually, both of these types of practice develop our consciousness in a certain way, forming the habit of a new attitude towards what and how we do, think, feel, say and perceive. And as modern studies of leading neuropsychologists show, as such a new attitude is consolidated as a new positive habit, important structural changes take place at the level of the nervous system: our brain is changing in the truest sense of the word (10, 11)!
Regular formal practice - doing daily exercises to develop mindfulness - leads to the fact that in everyday life we increasingly begin to relate to everything that happens from states of peace, clarity, warmth, acceptance and openness, which lead to all those magical effects of practice, about which was written above.
Conversely, the more we begin to be consciously present in our life, the deeper we can become acquainted with these states during formal practice, which leads to an even greater experience of awareness and presence in everything that life brings us.
How to practice it?
The short answer is shifting your attention to the present moment, and exploring it with openness, clarity, calmness and acceptance. Whatever happens at this moment, we open ourselves to it, and with complete clarity, without trying to impose our expectations, opinions or judgments on this moment, we study how it behaves right now. And of course, the whole idea is that we are not very good at doing this. The mind and body begin to get distracted, finding hundreds of reasons to urgently start doing something, just to escape from this moment. All that is needed in such moments is to realize what is happening, and with clarity, calmness and openness to accept it, while continuing to remain in the present moment.
For example, a formal practice might look something like this:
1. Sit on a chair with a straight back, slightly stretch over the crown of the head, while exhaling, relaxing in this position, without changing the position.
2. Optionally, close your eyes, or leave them open in soft defocus.
3. Take three calm and deep breaths in and out, while inhaling, directing attention to the sensations in the chest (expanding), while exhaling, in the abdomen (relaxing), then return to your natural breathing.
4. For the next few minutes, be aware of all the sensations of breathing that arise with each new inhalation and exhalation in the nostrils or abdomen.
5. If attention runs away into thoughts, note it and calmly return it back to the sensation of breathing as many times as necessary.
6. Before you finish the practice, check: perhaps the sensations have become a little brighter, and the consciousness a little clearer and more calm. If so, there is no reason to lose this state after finishing formal sitting practice and moving on to the next business.
Breathing is one of the classic objects of concentration, but there are many different techniques in which the observation takes place over any sensations in the body, over thoughts and images, over emotions, over the surrounding sounds.
In any case, formal practice is an exercise in developing certain skills of consciousness and attention, which leads us - and in this both ancient spiritual traditions and modern neuroscientists from Harvard, Oxford, Berkeley and other leading scientific centers of the world agree - to a happier one. a healthy and fulfilling life. And what is doubly pleasant: to feel all these wonderful effects of awareness, 10-20 minutes of regular daily practice is enough.
Gradually, practicing mindfulness will become as natural as brushing your teeth before bed. A hundred years ago, the benefits of brushing teeth were not obvious to the general public, but now it is a standard procedure. My goal is that in a few years hygiene of consciousness, a clear mind, physical and emotional health, and a happy, fulfilling life become as natural and healthy as the hygiene of the body. All that is needed for this is to learn how to control your attention and direct it to what is happening right now.