Mindfulness wasn’t something I ever thought of until I was 23; my workplace hosted a 45-minute meditation session every Wednesday, and I was encouraged to give it a shot. I’m not exaggerating when I say my first time was transformational.
The state of mind I felt during and after the session felt like a world which I was unaware of beforehand. The fact that we could direct our effort and attention in a way like that felt incredible, and in the year after that, I explored the topic through reading, experimentation, and reflection.
Here’s a summary of what learnt.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness means being aware of both our surroundings and our mind and body. It’s not a university degree to be achieved, which then stays with us forever; it’s a state of awareness which can be enjoyed for a single moment or for long periods of time.
Our lives consist of an onslaught of distractions, and it can be easy for us to lose awareness of these fundamental pieces of ourselves.
What Are the Benefits?
Here's a 15-second exercise: take a deep breath, straighten your back, relax your shoulders, unclench your jaw, and relax the area around your eyes.
Feel better?
Being aware of my body - and thus being able to listen to it and make adjustments like these - is one of the many benefits I’ve enjoyed by practicing mindfulness.
Besides this physical awareness, here’s a few of the things I noticed improving in the past year, and their link to mindfulness.
Emotional Awareness
A part of being mindful involves being aware of what we’re feeling and thinking. This awareness gives us information which can help us react to situations we’re in.
For example, you hear something that angers you, and you lash back. Later, you wish you had waited for your anger to pass so that you could better articulate.
Hindsight is 20/20, but by being mindful and noticing our feelings, we bring that vision to the present.
Enjoyment of Our Surroundings
There are so many flowers in the area I live in which I had never even noticed before. As I practiced mindfulness, I found myself becoming aware of them, and smaller and smaller details around me.
Having our attention directed at the present lets us really take in and appreciate a world which would have otherwise slipped by unnoticed. We would miss out on the feeling of wonder when spotting a little bird on a branch, or noticing an interaction by someone close-by.
Peace and Improved Mental Capacity
When I practiced my mindfulness exercises, my attention was directed fully at the exercise and what was going on. I wasn’t worrying about managing all the things I had to do next week, or worrying about how I got flustered in last week’s presentation.
Shedding that mental load, even if it’s for 15 minutes during a meditation, can feel so refreshing and energising. Afterwards, even if the worries started to come back, they tended to come back in a far less consuming way than before.
I had expected the momentary peace when I started the journey, but the increased mental capacity was such a wonderful persisting benefit which I wasn’t expecting and drove me to devote even more time to such practices.
Alignment with Our Purpose
Being aware of how I feel and how I react to different things has slowly let me build an understanding of my likes and dislikes, and that has helped me define what I want to do with myself. The added headspace to even be thinking about this has certainly helped.
How to Practice Mindfulness
Meditation
I used to think of meditation as an exercise done exclusively by monks and religious figures. I was missing out.
Mindfulness and meditation come hand in hand, which is why one is rarely talked about without mention of the other.
Meditation is the act of focusing your mind on a particular object or thought.
For example, a body scan is a meditation where you direct your attention to different parts of your body and notice how they feel, while breath focus is a meditation where you direct all your attention to your breathing. It may not sound fun, and it may feel awkward at first, but it’s incredibly rewarding and peaceful.
It can be done for a single minute, or for hours on end. I found it easier to start with short periods and then build up as I got comfortable with it.
I use Balance for guided meditations. They have a great set of Beginner and Advanced plans which ease a total newbie into the practice, all the way up the point of self-guiding meditations. The meditations range from 3 minutes to 30 minutes, and the lessons get more personalised as you go along.
They are currently offering a year's free subscription to all new joiners, click here to claim it.
Repetitive Exercises
Meditation is one example of an exercise that can be done regularly to improve mindfulness, but it's not the only one. Some others include:
- Posture checks like the one described above, which can be a very beneficial practice to bake into your days.
- Breath focus; close your eyes, and take a couple of deep breaths while saying "inhale" and "exhale" in your mind. It takes a few seconds but acts as a wonderful reset.
- Going on walks; no music, no distractions, just yourself and your surroundings. In the past year I found myself taking more and more walks, absorbing everything in my surroundings from the sounds, textures and smells, to the feeling of the ground as I stepped. It was a great way to get some fresh air while being mindful, and made me much more appreciative of how much goes on around us.
Doing Activities You Enjoy
What could something like a sport have in common with something like meditation? It takes our attention, and directs it all towards the present activity.
When we do something we enjoy, we rarely think of the future the past, or anything else happening beyond the activity in front of us. It's a great way to enjoy moments of mindfulness with little to no change to our days. The only change that's needed is to notice and appreciate when it's happening!
Lineart & Mindfulness
I first thought of starting Lineart when I saw the mindfulness people experienced when seeing my art.
I didn’t know that’s what it was at the time, but now it feels pretty obvious; when tracing along the lines, it was clear that all their attention was on that moment and experience. For a moment, there would be no stress about the future or worries about the past; they were fully focused on exploring the line and feeling the emotions it instilled.
This experience goes beyond my drawings. Whether we’re drawing, looking at art, making music, gaming, or doing any other activity which requires our attention and we’re fully in the moment, we’re experiencing mindfulness.
I highly encourage you to try these experiences and activities, and notice where your attention is directed.
The One Takeaway
If you’re to take away one thing from this all, it’s that mindfulness is a journey and not a destination, and being anywhere on that journey is a blessing, so remember to always take moments to pause, be aware of yourself and your surroundings, and enjoy the ride.
Do you have experiences or thoughts on mindfulness? Share in the comments below!
