‘Mindfulness is about being fully awake in our lives’

24 Aug

“Mindfulness is about being fully awake in our lives. It is about perceiving the exquisite vividness of each moment. We also gain immediate access to our own powerful inner resources for insight, transformation, and healing.” - Jon Kabat-Zinn

It is often hard to describe what mindfulness is all about, as to be able to fully grasp what is behind it, you have got to experience it. It is called a ‘practice’ after all.

I try to get a sense of people’s understanding of the practice in the first lesson of the courses that I run, and I often hear responses such as: mindfulness is about ‘awareness’, or about ‘being present’. While this is very true, it is also so much more than that.

In his quote above, Jon-Kabat Zinn, skilfully captures mindfulness from multiple dimensions:

- He uses the powerful word ‘Awake’, which is the dimension of being present with our attention and our awareness from moment to moment. I choose to intentionally direct my attention here, rather than being automatically pulled away by distractions or worries, over there.

- He uses the word ‘Vividness’, which describes the dimension of clarity that arises when we have the capacity to see things as they are, without judgements or pre-formed opinions. No one moment is the same as the other!

- And then he uses ‘access to Inner Resources’ - the dimension of stability and resilience that one gains when we can skilfully regulate our emotions and change perspectives when we encounter a challenging situation. This stands in contrast to being caught up in habitual patterns of thought and behaviour that do not serve us well in the longer-term.

Many who start off their journey with mindfulness perceive the practice as a self-regulating tool .. a parachute to help soften the knocks of life. Yet over time, when practiced regularly, mindfulness becomes a way of life: a way of being awake and aware with body, heart, and mind in each moment, to be able to live life fully.