What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness:

Mindfulness simply means to ‘remember’ from one moment to the next moment.  Mindfulness is cultivated through the practice of mindfulness meditation which develops the 'habit' of remembering or recalling.

Developing the 'habit' of remembering alerts us to bring our mind back to the present moment when it has gone to past memories or it is projecting into the future. When the mind is in the past or the future it is never in the present and the present moment is the only time we ever have to change, heal and grow.

Mindfulness has been described as a ‘faculty’ of the mind that is already present within us all in varying degrees and which may also be cultivated and developed further.  However, many of us do not realise this because we have never been trained to cultivate or develop it. It is through the practice of mindfulness meditation that we are able to cultivate and develop this quality of mind. A quality of mind imbued with heightened awareness, attention, focus, clarity, kindness, openness and acceptance to both our internal and external worlds including our thoughts, emotions, body sensations, environment and our relationship towards ourselves and others.

Mindfulness is about developing awareness to ‘see clearly’ what is going on in both our internal and external worlds. Seeing clearly empowers us, enabling us to respond in ways that are both beneficial to ourselves and others. When we are unable to see clearly we are lost in distraction and confusion, blown about by our thoughts and emotions, like a ship without a sail, reacting in ways that are unbeneficial to both ourselves and others.

The development of mindfulness relies on becoming aware of our thoughts, emotions, body sensations and our environment in a non-reactive or critical way. Only when we are able to do this, are we really able to open to our present moment experience and the interdependence at play. Mindfulness acts as a gatekeeper to the doors of our senses and perception, alerting us to respond with care and compassion to ourselves and others. Practising mindfulness cultivates our potential  to reduce our negative habitual patterns of mind and increase our mind’s positive qualities, enabling us to live well with a sense of satisfaction and genuine happiness.