What is Mindfulness?

According to the American Psychological Association mindfulness is: “a moment-to-moment awareness of one’s experience without judgment. In this sense, mindfulness is a state and not a trait. While it might be promoted by certain practices or activities, such as meditation, it is not equivalent to or synonymous with them.”

Essentially, mindfulness is the practice of the taming the mind and becoming aware of the thoughts you think and beliefs that shape your reality. By practicing mindfulness and learning to calm the mind and think in new patterns you can begin to shape your life in new ways.

Developing mindfulness helps to create presence. There are many tools and techniques to create more mindfulness and help you become more self aware and present in the now. Meditation, yoga, talk therapy, and more, can help you tune into you and develop your ability to live more conscious, aware, and mentally and emotionally well.

Why Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is being aware of your moment to moment thoughts and is rooted in Buddhism. By becoming aware of what you’re thinking, the feelings in your body, what triggers you, and your beliefs about yourself, reality, other people, and the present, you can learn to develop mental and emotional wellbeing. Mindfulness can help you make better choices and perceive life and reality from a neutral mind and clear perspective. Without developing mindfulness you can become overly emotional, reactive, defensive, and make poor decisions and more. Creating self awareness and learning more about yourself and how your mind is creating your reality and reactions can help you communicate better, become more confident and secure, and create better health and wellbeing.

There are many ways you can learn how to practice mindfulness and become more mindful. Yoga, meditation, and more are practices that can offer tools to become more mindful and aware. By developing mind and body consciousness you can overcome health issues, stress, and create more mental and emotional health and wellbeing. Thoughts and emotions and desires drive you. You take actions, get reactive, and make choices based on the programming you have. Learning to become conscious of yourself can make life a lot easier, more enjoyable, and better.

Knowing that everything is a reflection of you and what you hold within yourself grants you the power to train your mind in new ways. Becoming aware of your insecurities, how reactive you get, what your suppressed emotions and beliefs are creating, you can begin to change them. Rather than acting our emotional pain of the past, getting triggered by people, and ignoring problems, you can become conscious and live in more mature and mindful ways. This can create positive relationships, better romantic partners, and help your overall health and wellbeing.

You have the power to tame your mind, understand your mind, and improve your overall mindset and manners.

1. Take time to create space for yourself and be along with yourself.

2. Begin to acknowledge your thoughts and perceptions about yourself, others, and reality.

3. Feel your emotions, triggers, and become aware when you’re reactive and emotionally defensive.

4. Take responsibility for your actions and reactions, including the words you speak, the thoughts you think, and the resulting action you take.

5. Identify your habits and perceptions and use journaling to understand yourself and why you’re mentally or emotionally uncentered to understand what your mind and body are telling you and creating.

The goal of mindfulness is to create and develop a neutral mindset to become less reactive. This means overcoming our unconscious attachments to how life and people need to be and give up our control dynamics that believe our mind knows and thinks best. Without becoming conscious of yourself and being able to adopt an open and neutral mindset, you will continue to be triggered and unable to change your life.

Reality and people are always giving you feedback about yourself. If you refuse to change or overcome suppressed emotional pain or change your thinking you can and do greatly limit yourself. The thoughts you think, emotions within your body, and beliefs create your present reality and future. Becoming aware of what you are creating and knowing you have the power to help yourself live better and feel better can motivate you to make the necessary changes needed and wanted.

Yoga can teach you how to slow down, be in your body, and connect to yourself. Developing your intuition and learning to breathe and calm down can help you tame the monkey mind. Having more body awareness helps to create mental and emotional wellness. Yoga and movement can help move emotions so you can feel better within yourself and understand your emotions. Yoga with mindfulness can get you out of unconscious patterns and make you more self aware.

Some benefits to practicing mindfulness and yoga:

• Overcome addictive habits and thoughts
• Be able to communicate better
• Get to know yourself in new ways
• Help yourself destress
• Improve mood, motivation, and mentality
• Cultivate more self care and self awareness of your body and mind
• Release emotional pain, triggers, traumas, and more
• Improve overall health and wellbeing on every level: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual
• Form better relationships and make better choices by being less reactive and defensive
• Create peace in yourself and your life