What Is This Thing Called Mindfulness?

In the previous article we looked at the question of being too old to learn.

Remember what I said about why it is important to learn how YOU learn?

This is important now because I am returning to it as of this article.

Attitudes to spiritual practices

When it comes to the discussion of spiritual things, you might find that people fall into different camps/attitudes:

• hardliners/traditionalists: those who say things should be done a certain way,
• liberals: those who bend the rules and experiment with spiritual practices,
• progressives: those who come up with a “new revelation” which, if accepted as truth, often results in dogma,
• moderates: those who define themselves by what they do not do.

This typology could be applied to just about any field of human endeavor.

Dogmatic beliefs can be a hindrance for those of us who are seeking to map out our own spiritual path.

These dogmatic beliefs are often rooted in fear and ignorance.

You know that word prejudice.

Prejudice is often rooted in fear and ignorance.

Anyway…back to the program…

As of this article we will be looking at the metaphysical aspects of brain training.

We are kicking things off by looking at this thing called “mindfulness”.

What is this thing called “mindfulness”?

I think the first time I heard the word “mindfulness” was on an episode of The Big Bang Theory where Rajesh was explaining the concept.

Fast forward to the influx of advertisements we are currently being exposed to for things like

• therapy,
• apps that promise to calm us down,
• drug rehabilitation, and
• adverts depicting people sitting in the lotus position,
• …etc., etc., etc.

Have you ever heard your mother singing while she did the housework, cooking dinner, or even singing a lullaby?

Recall the Negro Spirituals that were a part of the African American experience of slavery.

These are examples of mindfulness.

Strictly speaking, they are examples of mindfulness meditation, the singing being a meditative act.

The term might be fairly novel. The concept and practice itself are much older.

No one ‘right’ way to do things

Remember what we said earlier about being prejudiced about how things “should” be.

Things like

• meditation
• prayer
• visualization
• mindfulness…

The word “prejudice” is made up of pre and judge.

We take our own spiritual yardstick and judge others by it, dictating to others how they should live their lives.

One of Dr. Fred Hatfield’s Seven Grandaddy Laws of Training (and we could apply this to brain training) is The Law of Individual Differences.

There is no one ‘right’ way to meditate, pray, visualize, or be mindful.

However, there is only the best way – for you.

You are responsibile to yourself.

How do YOU learn?

Find the spiritual path which fits your learning/representation style.

If this is your first time on this site, and you want to learn more about learning styles and their importance to training your brain, have a look at this article.

Generally, you are mindful when you are doing any task and paying careful attention to the entire task.

It is almost like designing a software program and breaking it down into its component parts to focus on each part.

In this case, you are engaging your senses while doing the task at hand.

So Rajesh mentions washing the dishes as an example of being mindful.

What senses are involved in dishwashing? Assuming you are using the kitchen sink, and not the dishwasher?

• sight – you see yourself doing the dishes, you might also be watching the birds outside or city sights while doing the dishes
• sound – you hear the clanking of the dishes, you might even be singing while you are doing them
• smell – often combined with taste, you smell the dishwashing liquid
• touch – you are feeling each item that you are washing, the temperature of the water, the squishiness of the soap…

Does the task you are engaged in make you feel peaceful, relaxed?

Are you living in the moment while you are doing the task and not doing anything else?

Like being on the phone…

There you go…

You are practicising mindfulness because you are focused on just doing that one thing.

Let’s look at practical ways in which you can visualize in the next article.

To a better, wiser, stronger – YOU.

PS: By the way, I love Laura Silva Quesada’s definition of spiritual – think of the atom. Does that sound like some “woo-woo” thing to you?

Image by Jowanna Daley from Pixabay