About Mindfulness

So what is mindfulness?

It’s the practice of bringing a non-judgmental awareness to our moment to moment experience.

Wow!  sounds great! What does that actually mean though?

Good point. Essentially it means we try to notice stuff. Any stuff. Right now. And now. And now. And so on.

More specifically it’s the stuff we perceive through our senses, ie sights, sounds, smells, touch, taste, as well as our thoughts and emotions. In short, everything in our field of experience. We notice this as it happens: in other words, we are not thinking about things that happened in the past or might occur in the future, but paying attention to what is occurring right now

And the non-judgmental bit?

That just means we are not taking a position for or against things. For instance, if we find the mind has wandered we just notice that and don’t get irritated or feel disappointed about it. Make sense?

Yes. But I don’t think I could manage that.

OK. The non-judgemental thing is more of an aspiration, especially in the early stages. It does get easier as we go along. Don’t get hung up about it: if you find yourself judging or criticizing – which you inevitably will- all you have to do is notice that you are judging or criticizing.

Great! So is that it?

No. There’s more to it than that, but that’s the gist of it. The point I’m trying to make is that it’s REALLY simple. You don’t need any special qualities to do it. Just a sense of curiosity and an intention to stick with it.

So far so good.  But why bother? What’s it going to do for me?

Fair point. The short answer is it will make you happier. Who doesn’t want that?

When we look into our minds and get to know our mental and emotional landscape we start to discern what makes us suffer and what makes us happy. Then we start to make better life choices and do more of what makes us happy and less of what makes us suffer

Awesome! Where do I sign up?

Go to the Useful Stuff section of this site and there is info on how you can take this up or have a look at the What I Offer page and get in touch.

Enjoy!