So what is mindfulness?
There's a lot of talk about mindfulness in the media,
On social networks,
The NHS,
Schools,
Politicians,
All sorts.
But what is this buzzword,
Mindfulness?
Often it's just a word and it's not fully understood.
So what is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is in fact very simple.
Mindfulness is bringing our attention to this precise moment in time into the here and now.
It is being here in this room,
Taking in everything that's happening in the now.
Any music,
Any scent,
Any sounds,
Perhaps sharing this experience.
But it is not judging the moment.
As soon as we let our minds take control and start judging the moment,
We lose this mindfulness state of acceptance.
The mind starts judging,
Do I like it?
Do I dislike it?
Can I compare it?
Do I want it?
Can I have it?
Can I evaluate it?
Can I calculate it?
It's being in this precise moment with non-judgment.
If I was to build a timeline of your life,
The present moment is now,
Here,
This moment,
This precious moment,
The moment we've never had before and we will never get again,
Right here,
Right now.
It's not letting the mind wander into the future,
What's going to happen later on today,
Tomorrow,
Next week,
Next year,
Five years time.
It's bringing our awareness back into the moment of now.
It's not letting the mind wander into the past,
Thinking about what you did before,
What happened last night,
Last week,
Last month,
One,
Five,
Ten years ago.
It's bringing our attention back into the now and into the present moment,
Living in it,
Acknowledging it,
Breathing fully in it with pure acceptance and non-judgment.
There is nothing about mindfulness that you've probably never done before.
There's nothing that you don't already know.
We're just bringing awareness,
Bringing our attention to simple moments in life where you can purposely bring in mindfulness.
It's exploring life in its simplest form.
There are no levels,
No people good at mindfulness.
There's no one bad at it.
It's not a competition.
There's no appropriate age,
No gender,
No experts.
It's just a practice.
It is just mindfulness.
It's about building relationships with yourself and the world around you.
Often people practice mindfulness in groups and normally in groups everyone goes around and says their name and what they do and perhaps what they've achieved and where they sit in society.
This is not necessary in mindfulness.
We can let go of labels.
We can let go of our egos,
Of who we are and what we want and whatever it is.
Because in mindfulness none of that really matters.
That can just all go out the window.
Mindfulness is about you and reconnecting with yourself,
Your surroundings and building a relationship with the simple things in life almost with a childlike wonder.
So why?
Why is mindfulness so important?
In a busy world where we increasingly have more distractions,
More social media,
Television,
Email,
Radio,
Facebook,
Newspapers,
Just to name a few,
We are experiencing an overload of stimulation like we have never seen before in the entire humanity.
So how are we going to cope as a human race with this?
It's a big question.
Well,
The only scientific way we know how to date to cope with this overload of information that is constantly being thrown at us is through mindfulness and meditation.
Information overload is a real problem in our society and we are seeing the highest rates of depression and anxiety we have ever seen.
Mindfulness and meditation are the only way we currently know to combat this because it can literally change our brain structure.
Without getting too scientific,
Let's talk about the brain,
The hippocampus.
It's like a little seahorse shaped structure.
Well,
This little structure,
Seahorse shaped structure is responsible for our learning.
It regulates our emotions such as positive feelings,
Love,
Peace,
Gratitude,
Happiness,
Etc.
And when we meditate or practice mindfulness,
We stimulate this area.
The brain is a muscle and like any muscle in the body,
The more you use and work it,
The stronger it gets.
But when we meditate,
Another amazing thing happens.
We actually shrink our amygdala.
It's a little almond shaped structure and this is responsible for the fight or flight reaction.
So whether it's a real threat or perceived,
Feelings of anxiety arise when this area is stimulated and it controls feelings of being overwhelmed,
Fear,
Loneliness,
Sadness and loss.
So when we meditate or practice mindfulness,
We strengthen the hippocampus and we shrink the amygdala.
And what you practice grows.
What you practice grows.
And this is why it's so important to bring mindfulness into your daily life,
At home,
At work and everywhere and as often as you can because we know that there is a thing called neuroplasticity,
Which means that the grey matter in the brain can thicken,
Shrink and the connections between neurons can be improved and old ones can be degraded or even terminated.
So it appears that the same mechanisms which allow our brains to learn can help us be happy.
And by doing mindfulness activities,
It is possible to rewire,
Rediscover a sense of peace and enjoyment.
And we may feel once again enchanted with life as it brings us back into living in the beauty of the present moment where everything is okay.
