Mindfulness,
In reality,
Is perhaps best discussed as an adverb rather than a noun,
Something active and in process rather than something static.
Of course,
When we reflect,
We naturally speak of things in a static nature,
Like a photographic snapshot of the past,
For in our minds,
It has already happened.
This tends to be the purview of the left hemisphere of the brain.
Giving aside the necessary limitations of grammar,
Mindfulness might be better understood through the lens of a how rather than a what.
Very often we equate meditation with a particular form of practice aimed at cultivating quote-unquote mindfulness.
We think meditation is mindfulness,
But of course,
What our intuition rightly tells us is that meditation isn't so much a what as a how.
That is to say,
One can practice meditation mindfully or not mindfully,
Although personally I like to relate to these things on more of a continuum,
As one can be more or less mindful,
More or less skillful.
What the continuum does is help differentiate our experiences without too rigidly defining them.
In this way,
The more we accept and allow our experience,
The more mindful we are being in relation to that experience,
The less we are willing to allow,
The less mindfully we are relating.
What this manner of redefining mindfulness does is imbue it with a natural lens of equanimity,
A quality of unconditional acceptance,
What John Wellwood called unconditional presence,
The willingness to be with any aspect of our experience,
Whatever is there,
Now.
To many,
This may sound obvious,
But where we often falter in our attempts is by subtly trying to force ourselves to feel things we might not be ready to feel,
Instead of being with the resistance to feeling itself.
That resistance,
Too,
Can be held.
The language of mindfulness is the language of love,
And love always says this too.
This too can be held.
By letting go of the tendency to relate to mindfulness as a thing,
A noun,
A what,
And to allow ourselves to relate to it as a process,
An adverb,
A how,
We begin to integrate the right brain hemisphere back into our perspective and allow it to take its rightful place as the wise shepherd of our experience.
Thank you.
