Mindfulness Practice for Beginners in Two Steps

Jun 08, 2018

Mindfulness is a kind of meditation.

For some people it's a spiritual thing and that's ok. Peace to them.

For me it's a brain-training thing and it helps even if you just do it for five minutes per day.

What does it help me do?

It helps me "see" what I'm doing before I do it. I can catch myself.

Example: I can notice that I'm about to eat a cookie from the plate my coworker brought before I actually pick up the cookie. I can see myself just automatically reacting to the presence of cookies and having one. I can choose to stop myself and rationally decide that now is not the time for a cookie. 

This works for all kind of things. Eating...sure, but also talking to people, getting angry and anything in life where we simply react to thing rather than respond to them.

Reacting is automatic and if we have bad habits, well...bad.

Responding is a choice you make.

Mindfulness let's you respond instead of react.

Here's how you do it:

  1. Find a quite spot. When you get used to it you can do it anywhere. Close your eyes and feel the sensation of your breath moving in and out. Focus on the air-movement feeling. I focus on the edges of my nostrils.
  2. Your mind will wander. A lot. When it does, bring your focus back to your breath. Over and over and OVER and OVER. For five minutes. Longer if you get to liking it.

That's it. Medition is not "thinking about nothing" nor "clearing your mind"...it's the act of coming back to the sensation of breath. Focusing there.

Medition is simply begining again. Focus on the breath. When it wanders, start over.

Doing that will make you start to notice when you react and let you respond instead.

It's that simple.

Give it a try.

- S

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Jun 08, 2018
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