The Practice of Mindfulness and Meditation
What is Mindfulness? A practice from East to West
Often our minds are not really “with” us – they are remembering, regretting, planning, analysing, wishing for….…in the past or future….missing the present moment.
Mindfulness can be seen as a state of mind or a mental skill which is an antidote to the above. Simply, it is:
“full awareness and acceptance of the present moment experience”
Kabat- Zinn (1998), a pioneer of mindfulness based therapeutic approaches in the West, describes mindfulness as “paying attention, without judgement, to the experience of the present moment”
The audio files for Mediation are an aide to guide us in this endeavour.
Guidelines for practice (to go with the introduction)
- Do not try hard! As best you can, let go of achieving anything or expecting anything particular. Approach with curiousity, with playfulness, with an open mind as far as possible. Approach yourself with kindness and compassion.
- Approach with the intent to stay right where you are, with whatever is there for you in the moment. Allow your experience to be as it is, without attempting to alter it’s nature, without reacting against it. Mindfulness is not a relaxation not a technique. Relaxation maybe a by product, but in this practice ,we are not trying to change how we feel….
- Intend to direct your full awareness or attention to one aspect of the present
- Observe, describe. Try to see- but not evaluate or analyse. Take input from the senses as acutely as possible in the attempt to see the ‘reality’ of one’s situation and internal processes
- Non-judgment: trying not to evaluate experience as either good or bad. Try to catch yourself thinking, or judging, or feeling (shoulds, should nots, good, bad, nice, irritating) and move back to simply observing, describing…
- Decentering (defusing, detaching): Observe your experience (thoughts, emotions, and sensations) without reacting to them.