Most people have likely heard the word “mindfulness” by now. But often, the word seems alluded to as a magical form of mental health care, with no solid explanation about what it is or how to incorporate it into our personal lives. Other times, a person might read an article or watch a tv clip about a celebrity achieving a state of mindfulness in their lives, like it is something that a person simply accomplishes one day. In reality, mindfulness is more of a personal practice and an evolving process.
According to the American Psychological Association dictionary, mindfulness is “awareness of one’s internal states and surroundings.” The APA dictionary explains that therapists implement mindfulness into therapy “….to help people avoid destructive or automatic habits and responses by learning to observe their thoughts, emotions, and other present-moment experiences without judging or reacting to them.”
Often in the noise and movement of every day life, people lose touch with how they are feeling. It’s easy to be distracted by a million things in 21st century life. How many times a day do we take space to check in with our five senses or the emotions stored in our bodies? Without awareness of our internal state, we allow ourselves to be carried throughout our day on auto-pilot, and this affects our nervous system and the hormones that run through our bodies. It may also allow us to operate on harmful thought patterns, reactions, and habits that we have learned in childhood or picked up along the way. For example, some people’s automatic operating system employs self-criticizing, which will likely continue if they do not bring awareness to it.
Sometimes, auto-pilot is necessary and useful. It helps us and gets the job done. But operating on autopilot all the time is not sustainable. Practicing mindfulness is like consciously settling into the pilot seat again, getting our bearings, and seeing how the plane is doing so that we can keep flying with confidence, request help or more fuel, or land and take a break. If we have passengers that depend on us, checking in to the pilot seat is even more important because we cannot take care of our precious cargo without flying the plane effectively.
Because mindfulness is a practice, it can be learned and developed, like any other skill. The amount of consistency that goes into developing mindfulness should correlate to the benefits a person gains. Just like learning a language, a person who practices daily will have different results than a person who checks in with their language app once a month. In addition, binging lessons all in one go is often less effective than slow and steady practice.
A recommended approach to mindfulness is to pick a consistent time and place to begin practicing. Once a person has established this, they may experiment with what helps them connect with their internal self and develop an ability to be present with their external reality. If you are curious about ways to start practicing mindfulness, check out the next article: Mindfulness: How do I start?