Mindfulness is…
“paying attention on purpose in the present moment and non-judgementally.”
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Mindfulness is both the formal and informal practice of showing up in our lives. Showing up requires an attitude of interest and curiosity, of non-judgement and a willingness to be with whatever is present for us in our experience at the time it is arising.
Formal mindfulness involves a period of daily meditative practice; sitting, walking or lying down. Informal practice involves bringing our attention to the task before us during our day, whether in conversation, sending an email, or travelling to work.
Mindfulness is about balance, the balance that come from inhabiting more of our experience, our life, our world, as opposed to living in one part, whether that part is the head, the body or the emotions. Mindfulness provides a way towards rebalancing and maintaining balance in our lives
Mindfulness involves a shift in gear from our dominant state, which we can describe as autopilot, into a broader more inclusive state where it is possible to experience and know the arising and passing of thoughts, feelings moods and sensations, without a sense of being carried away or identified with them, which is a more integrated state which we can think of as being.
“ to grow into the fullness of who we actually already are is the challenge of a lifetime for each of us as human beings. No one can take on that work for us. It can only be our own undertaking in response to our own calling – and only if we care deeply about living the life that is authentically ours to live, in the face of everything that we may be called to engage with, being human.”
Jon Kabat-Zinn