Mindfulness is a state where one is aware of one’s actions, thoughts, and motivations. It has also been described as an attentive state and being careful about one’s actions. Several oriental religions, including Buddhism and Hinduism, have emphasized mindfulness as being essential to one’s liberation or oneness with God.
Basically, mindfulness is a method wherein one pulls one’s thoughts from the Past and the Future into the Present. |
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Enforcing mindfulness
The teachings of the BudDHA advise that mindfulness can be attained by meditation. Though this is not an absolute way of attaining mindfulness, several individuals do prefer the structured discipline of this activity in collecting one’s thoughts and coming into contact with one’s inner being and inner reality.
As meditation is not an essential activity to developing mindfulness, one can even focus on the mind’s thoughts in response to an external stimulus while avoiding conscious reaction by oneself. Once one has been able to identify the mind’s response, one is better equipped to deal with one’s response and need no longer give in to anything negative.
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That means an activity that was frustrating or depressing initially can just be interesting and thought-provoking once one has had a chance to review all its aspects. Any activity done mindfully becomes a form of meditation and will contribute to ensuring clarity of thought.
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The aim in enforcing mindfulness should be to make it a continuous activity whereby one would view all one’s thoughts meditatively and undertake well-thought-out actions to events.
Mindfulness in the East and the West
Mindfulness has been a concept that has been extant for several centuries in both Eastern and Western cultures. However, it has received most encouragement and acceptance in the Eastern school of thought.
Despite this, Western teachers, clinical psychologists, and psychiatrists are increasingly looking toward mindfulness as a non-pharmacological therapy for dealing with stress, anxiety, and depressive states of mind.
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Therapeutic effects of mindfulness - The effects of mindfulness have been studied and applied both in medical and psychiatric settings, with marked results in managing chronic pain and stress.
- It has also been used in the prevention and treatment of drug and substance abuse.
- Additional research has been focusing on cognitive therapy involving mindfulness in preventing suicidal behavior in individuals affected with mental illness predisposing them to do so.
- Mindfulness-based stress reduction has been applied in relieving stress in individuals under excessive stress as part of the stress-management measure.
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| Additional areas of application |
- Mindfulness meditation has been applied in and found to be clinically effective in managing depression, stress, chronic pain, anxiety, panic, obsessive thinking, strong emotional reactivity, etc.
- It has been used as therapy in the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
- It has also been used as a technique in the treatment of individuals suffering from borderline personality disorder.
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How can one go about enforcing mindfulness?
Given the potential benefits of this exercise, it is advisable that one tries to enforce this policy at least in certain aspects of one’s life. Some measures to aid this enforcement include: |
- Meditating: Focusing on bringing one’s thoughts to a semblance of order or adequately detaching oneself from them to view them in a detached perspective can reveal aspects that may never have become apparent otherwise.
- Yoga: Identifying the type of yoga that lets one commune most with one’s inner self can aid development of mindfulness.
- Nature: Reinforcing the interaction with nature that is increasingly being lost in the frenetic pace of modern lifestyles can provide healing benefits when applied through mindfulness.
- Avoiding materialism: Realizing the importance of the material and the spiritual dimensions can help prioritize our wants and needs such that we do not lose out on what is most important in human life.
- Concern for our world: Mindfulness can be attained and applied in making our world a better place and in delaying or preventing the exhaustion of limited resources.
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