Who has the time for mindfulness?
This is a common concern of many of my clients; both in my private Holistic Counseling practice and in the therapeutic groups I lead, mindfulness is one of the primary wellness skills I teach. I focus on how to incorporate a mindfulness practice into their everyday lives. I often teach that we don’t need to make more time for mindfulness; it actually brings more depth and aliveness to every moment. This is also called "present moment awareness," 9 my kids call it PMA for short). What we are adding is more attention on purpose, not more time. In fact, we waste a lot of time not being mindful or present in our everyday lives.
Without a mindfulness practice, the mind is like a sponge that is never rung out, it keeps adding more and more, but after a while it is slower to absorb, and has less clarity. Like the sponge full of water, our minds are full of thoughts: how well can that saturated sponge conduct a simple task like cleaning the dishes? Inevitably, it can do the job (I call this "automatic pilot"), but not very well.
For instance, you might even be literally cleaning the dishes, but your mind is somewhere else, like rehashing a conversation that you had earlier that day, and maybe you are even judging yourself—you feel horrible, but you are actually standing alone in your kitchen just washing the dishes; this moment is uneventful, but your mind is causing pain. You may not even be aware that you feel horrible or why you feel that way. Much like that sponge, the mind is saturated by constant thinking, judging, analyzing mostly about everything except what you are doing in the present moment like cleaning the dishes. Most of the stream of thinking is not necessary, or even causes suffering; some pain comes in the form of worry when your thoughts are projecting into the future or sadness when your thoughts are ruminating over the past. Practicing mindfulness provides a way to transform that constant, automatic, and unaware thinking into a focused, attentive, and purposeful present moment experience.
Mindfulness practice teaches us what the mind does: it constantly thinks. It teaches us to be aware of our thoughts, and compassionately allows them to be there; after all, they are just thoughts. We then learn we are not our thoughts and emotions; rather, we have thoughts and emotions. We learn how to find the “pause button,” which we push by focusing our attention on purpose in the present moment; in this case, washing the dishes. Then we are able to just wash the dishes instead of being distracted by all the thoughts and mind chatter. We may even enjoy washing the dishes—imagine that! We can smell the clean and fresh dish soap, we can feel the warm soapy water on our hands, we can focus on all the colors in the kitchen sink. If our thoughts do come up, like they do, we are aware of them; awareness brings choice.
That is mindfulness; it gives us space to know that we have a choice. When we are not aware of our constant thinking, we don’t know we have the power of choice. We can purposefully allow the thoughts to be there and continue to practice, for instance, mindful dish washing; before you know it, we have finished the task of washing the dishes.
Of course, we can use any task or time through out the day to practice mindfulness. Sometimes the hardest part is starting and remembering. Every time I wash my hands, I am reminded to do so mindfully.
The simplest path, I always say, is with the breath: your breath is always with you in the present moment, and you don’t need to pack it up, or remember it. I suggest to my clients to pick an activity or a time of the day, when they are alerted to practice. For an example, I have a client who, before he eats anything, he takes three deep breaths. Another example are, students who take a few deep breaths before taking a test.
When my clients experience the difference this approach makes in their lives, they are encouraged to maintain it, and that is why I suggest to my clients to create a mindfulness practice that they can use in their everyday lives.
Everyone’s mind chatters, the inner calm brought by present moment awareness is our natural state. Mindfulness is an empowering tool that everyone of us can do to uncover that calm. It just takes practice.
By Kristin Stiles-Hall, LICSW, EMP and Reiki Master
Kristin’s undergraduate study was in physical therapy, her graduate work was in clinical social work, and her postgraduate work was in energy medicine. She blends all her training and knowledge into a complete, compassionate and holistic healing practice. She is passionate about health and wellness in her own life. She knows that there is more than one path for healing.
Visit: my Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/KristinSpiralhealing3
This is a common concern of many of my clients; both in my private Holistic Counseling practice and in the therapeutic groups I lead, mindfulness is one of the primary wellness skills I teach. I focus on how to incorporate a mindfulness practice into their everyday lives. I often teach that we don’t need to make more time for mindfulness; it actually brings more depth and aliveness to every moment. This is also called "present moment awareness," 9 my kids call it PMA for short). What we are adding is more attention on purpose, not more time. In fact, we waste a lot of time not being mindful or present in our everyday lives.
Without a mindfulness practice, the mind is like a sponge that is never rung out, it keeps adding more and more, but after a while it is slower to absorb, and has less clarity. Like the sponge full of water, our minds are full of thoughts: how well can that saturated sponge conduct a simple task like cleaning the dishes? Inevitably, it can do the job (I call this "automatic pilot"), but not very well.
For instance, you might even be literally cleaning the dishes, but your mind is somewhere else, like rehashing a conversation that you had earlier that day, and maybe you are even judging yourself—you feel horrible, but you are actually standing alone in your kitchen just washing the dishes; this moment is uneventful, but your mind is causing pain. You may not even be aware that you feel horrible or why you feel that way. Much like that sponge, the mind is saturated by constant thinking, judging, analyzing mostly about everything except what you are doing in the present moment like cleaning the dishes. Most of the stream of thinking is not necessary, or even causes suffering; some pain comes in the form of worry when your thoughts are projecting into the future or sadness when your thoughts are ruminating over the past. Practicing mindfulness provides a way to transform that constant, automatic, and unaware thinking into a focused, attentive, and purposeful present moment experience.
Mindfulness practice teaches us what the mind does: it constantly thinks. It teaches us to be aware of our thoughts, and compassionately allows them to be there; after all, they are just thoughts. We then learn we are not our thoughts and emotions; rather, we have thoughts and emotions. We learn how to find the “pause button,” which we push by focusing our attention on purpose in the present moment; in this case, washing the dishes. Then we are able to just wash the dishes instead of being distracted by all the thoughts and mind chatter. We may even enjoy washing the dishes—imagine that! We can smell the clean and fresh dish soap, we can feel the warm soapy water on our hands, we can focus on all the colors in the kitchen sink. If our thoughts do come up, like they do, we are aware of them; awareness brings choice.
That is mindfulness; it gives us space to know that we have a choice. When we are not aware of our constant thinking, we don’t know we have the power of choice. We can purposefully allow the thoughts to be there and continue to practice, for instance, mindful dish washing; before you know it, we have finished the task of washing the dishes.
Of course, we can use any task or time through out the day to practice mindfulness. Sometimes the hardest part is starting and remembering. Every time I wash my hands, I am reminded to do so mindfully.
The simplest path, I always say, is with the breath: your breath is always with you in the present moment, and you don’t need to pack it up, or remember it. I suggest to my clients to pick an activity or a time of the day, when they are alerted to practice. For an example, I have a client who, before he eats anything, he takes three deep breaths. Another example are, students who take a few deep breaths before taking a test.
When my clients experience the difference this approach makes in their lives, they are encouraged to maintain it, and that is why I suggest to my clients to create a mindfulness practice that they can use in their everyday lives.
Everyone’s mind chatters, the inner calm brought by present moment awareness is our natural state. Mindfulness is an empowering tool that everyone of us can do to uncover that calm. It just takes practice.
By Kristin Stiles-Hall, LICSW, EMP and Reiki Master
Kristin’s undergraduate study was in physical therapy, her graduate work was in clinical social work, and her postgraduate work was in energy medicine. She blends all her training and knowledge into a complete, compassionate and holistic healing practice. She is passionate about health and wellness in her own life. She knows that there is more than one path for healing.
Visit: my Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/KristinSpiralhealing3
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