Practice Mindfulness (Buddhism)

Mindfulness is the ability to see things as they really are, without the cloud of feelings, prejudice, or even mood.

Mindfulness is part of the eightfold path of Buddhism and can be a key part of meditation.

It is also used in western culture as a therapeutic technique to reduce stress, pain, and even help with depression. It can be used to find and maintain a sense of gratitude toward life, or even to improve your running style! You can develop your own mindfulness practice for the holidays and benefit from it, too. This article addresses the Buddhist approach to mindfulness. There is also Be Mindful in Judaeo Christian Thought. For the more general approach, see How to Be Mindful.

Steps

 * 1)  Learn more about what mindfulness is. You don't have to practice Buddhism or even meditate to practice mindfulness, but learning more about its roots and uses can help you understand how to practice it better in your own life.
 * 2) * Right Mindfulness is the seventh element of the eightfold path of Buddhism, and adherents are taught to "constantly keep their minds alert to phenomena that affect the body and mind".
 * 3) * Mindfulness Meditation encourages practitioners to do much by doing nothing.
 * 4) * Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCR), and other approaches apply mindfulness to western psychological therapies. In these it is more often considered an awareness and acceptance of the present.
 * 5)  Begin your own mindful meditation practice. Find a quiet place, then focus your mind on the present moment. Don't think of other things, but sit in silence. Begin with ten minutes and meditate daily. Be aware of your thoughts, but be willing to release them and stop thinking about or focusing on them.
 * 6)  Practice mindfulness outside of meditation. Be aware of your body, your emotions, and what is happening at that moment. Notice sensations. Identify cues that will bring you back to your mindfulness - such as an hourly chime - but otherwise reduce distractions and busyness, and practice living in the moment.
 * 7)  Consider gratitude. As you become more mindful of your present, recognize the things around you that you may have taken for granted and be grateful for foundations that were already established. We stand upon the past even in a new epoch or disjunctive paradigm.  ~ Ascent to gratitude. That can ground one in the moment; as you learn to focus attitudes -- and to appreciate the beneficial experience within and around. It is better to recognize gratitude [mutually] than emptiness [separately].
 * 8)  Analyze. Take into account, when incurring a situation, the different inputs that can color your judgments and mental frame.  Contemplate your body - as the physical contributes to your internal view? Contemplate your feelings - as the present instance repulses or attracts you? Contemplate your state of mind - as you are conscious of something which is carrying over, going forward... Contemplate these phenomena - individually analyze the situation.  When you distill the impressions, perceptions, and experiences out of the interpretation of the current situation, you can see an extract without its being obscured by murky matters in the past: as your mind exits the past, the known -- nor yet sees the mist shrouded moments beyond this moment.

Tips

 * Focus on your breathing to help you eliminate distractions. As you look toward a mindfulness meditation, practice focusing on nothing... or consider choosing a mantra - your heartfelt word or phrase that distills/instills mindful moments.

Related Tips and Steps

 * How to Be Mindful
 * How to Do Nothing
 * How to Meditate
 * How to Relax

Sources and Citations

 * Mindfulness.com
 * Wikipedia article about Mindfulness