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9 Attitudes That Will Help You Master Mindfulness
Only you can change yourself and the change starts with new attitudes.
We humans are quite funny. We focus on something until it becomes quite popular and move on to another toy when we get bored. Mindfulness is one of these modern concepts in our lives, but it is real and useful, no matter what others say. If appropriately used, mindfulness is an excellent concept for an engaged, happy, content, and tranquil life. It may also look like a derivative of a Buddhist or Zen teaching, for others.
So what is it, and what is it not?
Mindfulness means paying attention to the moment, which sounds easy, but it is more than that. Being in the flow with joy, awareness, compassion, and kindness make it unique.
Our attention is discrete. Mindfulness is to switch from half-conscious attention to full purposeful attention. The mind works on autopilot, meaning that we react to external stimuli instead of responding to them. Our rational choices make only 6% of our decisions, and the rest is subconscious. Thus, mental programming, consisting of our personality and cultural lenses and unconscious biases, drive our reactions. Therefore most of our behaviors are actions on autopilot. This is not a good way to use our free will.
Moreover, our inner chatter clouds our mind and disconnect us from the present moment. We think about the past and the future with an emotional attachment when triggered by external stimuli. That makes us a puppet of external influencers. We may be physically present without presence.
Mindfulness is not meditation, but meditation is one of the tools to master mindfulness. Mindfulness is the result of tranquilizing the monkey mind, silencing the inner-judge, and making peace between the ego and conscience. It is not enjoying the moment, but being in the moment as the first one is about the fun part of it. However, mindfulness is like a river pouring into an ocean…
