Mindfulness
Mindfulness can help change the habitual way your mind controls your life. It is especially helpful when we are dealing with relationships.
Once you are aware that your reactions to life’s ups and downs can be moderated by the way you think, the way you understand, the way you see things you are beginning to exert greater control over your life.
I am not a great one for control… but I like the idea that I have more control than anyone else over what I think and want and do. That is, not being controlled or manipulated or coerced by outside forces gives me a sense of freedom and choice.
Mindfulness Meditation introduces this idea into a way of being in the world.
Mindfulness involves nonbeing and nondoing which introduce and support the essence of nonviolence… being in the here-and-now… responding in a helpful way.
When we react rather than respond we are probably relying on our ancestral way of being. Early in the development of contemporary man the way to survive was to be the first to strike back, protecting ourselves, property, family and so on.
Knowing HOW TO RESPOND in the moment can save an enormous amount of energy and unproductive behaviour.
Nonbeing denotes allowing the self to be in space free from judgment, free from influence, free from fear and shame and free to embrace everything.
While none of us welcome the uncomfortable or hard or difficult things or people in our lives, hardly any of us can say they have not experienced those times. What to do with that knowledge is how mindfulness works.
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Your mind can activate ways of acting rather than REacting; responding rather than lashing out unthinkingly.
Responding comes after mindfully reflecting, considering, caringly attending the issue or person or event. Going a little bit out of your way to say “Hello, can I help?” you rather than brushing past in a hurry to get your tasks finished. I say, your task in life is to be attentive to others.
Nondoing indicates not interfering or to do only things that are meaningful and have significance in-the-moment.
Nonviolence is the here-and-now, what is happening in this moment, being alert and relaxed at the same time. In some sense it has similarities with the “at peace” state people encounter after meditation.
The here-and-now or mindfulness concept allows therapist and client to honestly and bravely encounter issues that may be stumbling blocks in life transitions… life transitions we all face.
How we handle these transitions is indicative of how well we know ourselves and perhaps how well we face our shortcomings or incorporate our shadow or dark side of our character.
That hoary saying — “Life is not meant to be easy,” might be better understood with — “The easy path is great but it is the difficult that makes me bolder, brighter, more complete within myself, more creative, more authentic… a better person…”
This article is taken from the choosingchange website.
