Is Mindfulness Meditation right for you?

“The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. This is how we cultivate mindfulness” -Jon Kabat-Zinn

What is Meditation and is it the same as Mindfulness ?

I started learning about meditating two years ago and I have to say that it is still hard for me to explain to my friends what meditation and mindfulness are. I think that the definitions I have read can hardly explain my experience practicing it, but I will try my best right now. One way to define Meditation is sipimply being aware of something and maintaining that awareness. Now on the other hand Mindfulness is a form of meditation.
Jon Kabat-Zinn author and teacher of mindfulness defines Mindfulness as:

“Awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally...” “And then I sometimes add, in the service of self-understanding and wisdom.”

Mindfulness can be practiced both informally (at any time/place) and formally (during seated meditation). We can bring our focus to the present moment by using different techniques such as observing the thoughts that arise and then bringing our attention back to our breathing, surrounding sounds or even to physical sensations. Embracing the here and now.

Is practicing Mindfulness Meditation hard?

When I started going to a meditation group I discovered that my idea of practicing mindfulness was completely wrong. I always thought that it meant being hyper focused and emptying the mind. I could not have been more wrong. My first practice was actually very frustrating, as I closed my eyes I saw a waterfall of thoughts and became very annoyed with myself for not being able to blank my mind. Then our teacher explained to us that having an empty and blank mind is not what practicing mindfulness is, on the contrary our human minds will always have thoughts in the forms of images, internal dialogue and emotions. When we practice mindfulness we become observers of those thoughts and try to let them pass until a new one arises.
She said to us:

“Have you been on the street and seen someone really good looking walk by? Do you follow that good looking person home? Well I hope not! You just take a glimpse and let them go. That is what I want you to do with your thoughts during practice. If they come, observe them and don’t be a creep and follow them. Observe and let go.”

The wonderful thing about mindfulness is that we can have support to help us bring our mind to the present moment when we have too many thoughts. For example if we are using our surrounding sounds to help us be present, our intention will be to focus on the car noises, or bird sounds, and whenever we get distracted by a thought or an image in our mind we simply let them pass and we go back to paying attention to the sounds.As many times as we need.

Now, maybe you do not like the idea of using the sounds around you, don’t worry! You could focus on other things like breathing, calming music, emotions and physical sensations. There are different types of mindfulness practices for all our different needs.

Is Mindfulness Meditation for you?

My answear is that there is probably one way of approaching mindfulness meditation that is just right for you. In the next section I want to share with you different types of mindfulness practices, as well as inspiring talks by meditation teachers. I encourage you to try Mindfulness Meditation and experience the wonderful benefits of it!