Mindfulness is a practice taken largely from Buddhism, although it is not in itself religious. It requires awareness to be brought to physical sensations, thoughts and emotions as they present in the moment. The mindful individual is aware but does not get involved or attached. Sensations, emotions and thoughts are viewed and examined in detail, from a third party point of view, with no attempt being made to deny or block them, or distract from them. This allows him to become more familar with all this mental activity, appreciating how it arises and if left alone, passes. This is useful when dealing with troublesome emotions like fear, anger, envy and with desire.
Watching the coming and going of thoughts and emotions allows the mindful individual to become aware of their transient and insubstantial nature, while taking a 3rd person perspective reminds him that he is more than this mental activity.
Mindfulness is non-judgmental, so emotions and thoughts are observed impassively- if a particular negative thought or emotion such as anger or envy appears it is not judged but simply observed. This may be helped by mental labelling: for instance thinking “there’s some anger” or just thinking “anger”. There are a number of other attitudes which are thought to be required to develop mindfulness- these include patience, acceptance, newness, trust and non striving (more on this in later posts).
The mindful individual accepts the present moment for what it is rather than feeling unsatisfied because things are not right for some reason. So if there is anger, fear or envy for instance they are accepted as present in this moment. In fact these negative emotions and states of mind are welcomed as an opportunity for learning and becoming more mindful, as they show the transient and insubstantial nature of such mental states.
Acceptance does not mean passivity, but rather awareness that whatever the goal a true understanding of the current situation, through being mindful, is more likely to produce the desired progress- with a calm state of mind.
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