Beginning Mindfulness Practice: Definition of Mindfulness

Beginning mindfulness will be easier if you understand the definition of mindfulness first. By understanding mindfulness definition, you will have a clearer view how to begin your mindfulness in a better way.

To explain the definition of mindfulness, I will start with an example of mindfulness practice in our daily life. You can also read my posting about simple mindfulness meditation practice for your daily life.

Mindfulness practice means to be constantly aware or conscious of we do. It requires us to keep our minds absorbed in the present moment, noticing the details and nuances of our actions. For example, if we wash a cup with mindfulness practice, we notice the texture and temperature of the cup. We are aware of how much pressure we are applying to the cup with the cloth or brush. We take note of the speed with which we are conducting the activity, and we become aware of our own physical sensations and thought processes. It certainly prevents us from rushing which is one of the goal that we hope from mindfulness practice.

The more repetitive or routine the activity, the more likely it is that we will switch to autopilot and allow our minds to dwell elsewhere. This is certainly necessary, to provide us with time to make plans or to reminisce. But in our busy, complicated lives we perhaps spend too much time pondering the trivial, dwelling on the past or anticipating future possibilities. We tend to miss a full appreciation of the present, because our minds are perpetually oscillating backwards and forwards through time and space. As you getting more advance in your mindfulness practice, you will understand that the past is history and the future is only possibility - it might not even happen. The only ‘reality’ for us is what our consciousness perceives right now.

So, if you wash that your full attention, you will learn a great deal about that cup.

Now, I will give you another example of mindfulness practice that will help you understanding the definition of mindfulness.

If you are a healer applying a healing touch with your full attention, you will learn a lot about your touch and about how your touch is received. If you make mindfulness practice a priority and a discipline, you will spend much more time in the here and now. Consequently, you will learn a lot about yourself and about how you interact with others. Your healing touch will naturally become more sensitive, more empathic, and thus, more effective.

Mindfulness practice develops sensitivity to what is going on within you. As a result it develops equanimity, because equanimity is the opposite of succumbing to distractions. To illustrate the relevance of this, imagine you are the receiver of some from of healing treatment. In that situation, you will definitely feel more at ease when worked on by a serene and centre person, compared to being treated by someone who is clearly preoccupied with some other issue: the former will feel great and the latter will hurt or irritate you.

One of the easiest ways to practice mindfulness is to observe your own breathing. As long as you are alive you will be breathing, so if breath is the object of your attentions, you know you cannot forget to bring it with you. A good technique is to observe the breath as it enters and leaves your nostrils, tying to notice any sensations felt and points of entry and exit. You may feel this close to the tip of your nose and to your lip.

Experiment to see which applies to you. Try to register only those sensations felt at this point: in other words, do not follow the breath deeper into the body on the inhalation or beyond the nose on the exhalation. Like a toll booth operator, you are the gate. Alternatively, you could be aware of your belly moving slightly in and out as you breathe, relating only to the sensation of your lower belly ‘opening’ a little as you inhale and ‘closing’ a little as you exhale. Again, avoid following the breath to see where it goes (although you could do that once or twice as a separate meditation, just to find out) these techniques are examples of a mindfulness of breath practice method known as anapana.

If you practice breathing with awareness, you will remember to do other things with more awareness. Try to not get obsessive about it though, or broadcast the fact that you are doing it, because it is not helpful to draw unnecessary attention to this activity. Just quietly continue until it becomes a natural and unobtrusive part of your way of being. You will be pleasantly surprised by the fringe benefits, particularly the way in which you are able to cope your own stress more positively.

Mindfulness practice requires a sort of detached concentration.

How ever, when firmly established as a practice, mindfulness yields a different quality from concentration in that concentration excludes things that are not the object of concentration, whereas mindfulness practice includes the spectrum of all things within your perception at any given moment. Mindfulness practice gives us the qualities of:
· Sensitivity
Nothing is judged to be unworthy of our attention. Thus everything that comes into our perception is greeted equally.
· Oneness
Our heart, body and mind become more integrated making us receptive to all things without judgement, rather than emotionally reactive to them.
· Clarity
Mindfulness is like a mirror, simply reflecting without preference what is actually happening in each moment. It dissolves the habit of judging and reacting, and leads to clarity of perception, which results in greater calmness.

When the mind is not mindful and attentive, it follows its habitual patterns of liking, disliking, rejecting, pursuing, projecting, and being for and against things. Clear attentiveness is awareness that is free from the process of reacting, without adding or subtracting anything from the experience. Confusion dissipates and clarity and equanimity emerge.

Mindfulness practice is distinguished from the concentration of the juggler or athlete by the intention to awaken and transform, and to nurture an understanding of the true nature of experience. Mindfulness practice does not foster new theories or belief systems, but simply focuses our mind upon the essential clarity and reality of our own experiences. It causes us to awaken and free ourselves from pondering what might have been or what could be.

Mindfulness practice of body

Exploring our relationship to pain and pleasure within our bodies helps us to gain insight into that relationship, both at the physical and emotional levels. Our natural tendency is to flee from the unpleasant because we have learned to fear it and suppress it, avoid it and suppress it, thus ending up living a life of anxiety and struggle.

With practice, if we observe pain and pleasure rather than indulge it, different levels of sensation will emerge, which we can eventually learn to relinquish. In this way, there will be a release of superficial tensions, and, eventually, of any deeply buried pain created through past emotional or psychological trauma. However, it is not just pain and trauma that come to the surface. We will also see compassion, generosity and love increasingly arise within us. Just as well, because if all we got was pain and aggravation, we would soon give up!

Now, I hope you have a better understanding about the definition of mindfulness and able to practice mindfulness in a better way.

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