Mindfulness Meditation
As the word suggests Mindfulness Meditation is a type of meditation which involves paying attention to the present moment. When mindfulness meditation is practiced formally, the breath is usually used as an anchor for the attention. By following the breath, the mind has something to focus on and gently be brought back to every time it wanders. It is intended to develop skills of paying attention to ourselves and the world and encourages compassion, acceptance, and kindness.
History of Mindfullness Meditation
Mindfulness Meditation practice has become popular worldwide in the past decades, but their roots reach 2,500 years into the past. Though they have taken different forms according to the needs of everyone; their purpose remains constant that is to end suffering. Mindfulness meditations have been found in the ancient texts of nearly every major religion including Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and Christianity.
It is a practice involved in various religious and secular traditions, from Hinduism and Buddhism to yoga and, more recently, non-religious meditation. People have been practicing mindfulness for thousands of years, whether by itself or as part of a larger tradition.
Mindfulness was mostly popularised in the East by religious and spiritual institutions. Its practices were inspired mainly by teachings from the Eastern World, particularly from Buddhist traditions. It’s Buddhism that really helps us understand the origin of mindfulness meditation because it is integral to the Buddhist path. In Buddhism, it’s important to cultivate a non-judgemental awareness of yourself, your feelings, your mind, and your surroundings. This distance and observation can be trained through a series of mindfulness meditations. From east mindfulness meditation was spread to the west in 1979, Jon Kabat-Zinn founded the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program at the University of Massachusetts to treat the chronically ill. This program sparked the application of mindfulness ideas and practices in Medicine for the treatment of a variety of conditions in both healthy and unhealthy people. MBSR and similar programs are now widely applied in schools, prisons, hospitals, veterans centres, and other environments.
Mindfulness For Beginners :
A lot of us may think of trying it but it can be difficult to know where to begin with, so here is the easy way to know how to get started for beginners.
Your meditation time will be so foreign and so different from your day-to-day life it can be difficult to bridge the two. You don’t need to stress over how I will take out extra time for meditation, the more we think the more we get stressed. The meaning of mindfulness meditation is to put our focus into one thing. Mindfulness meditation encourages the practitioner to observe wandering thoughts as they drift through the mind. The intention is not to get involved with the thoughts or to judge them, but simply to be aware of each mental note as it arises you can see how your thoughts and feelings tend to move in particular patterns. You can become more aware of the human tendency to quickly judge an experience as good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant. With practice, an inner balance develops.
Mindfulness helps us put some space between ourselves and our reactions, breaking down our conditioned responses.
How to practice Mindfulness Meditation
A simpler method is to simply bring mindfulness into your daily activities. Then, once you have a taste of what this feels like you can you can start a regular mindfulness meditation practice. If while washing dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not “washing the dishes to wash the dishes.” What’s more, we are not alive during the time we are washing the dishes. In fact, we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can’t wash the dishes, the chances are we won’t be able to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands. Thus we are sucked away into the future and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.” ― Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness Next time when you’re washing dishes, brushing your teeth, or taking a shower, instead of trying to rush through this activity see if you can do it in a mindful way. Bring your attention to your breath and pay attention to every sensation that arises. There is no past, there is no future, only the present nature of the activity you’re doing.
You don’t have to set aside any extra time for meditation, you can simply integrate this meditative practice into your daily activities.You can begin with shorter activities and expand with time.
It lays a solid foundation to begin an internal meditative practice.
It can be a great way to manage and reduce stress.
Once you are comfortable with it you can begin with setting a separate time for mindfulness meditation, choosing a comfortable spot helps a lot in reducing the distractions, focusing on breathing will automatically take you to the peaceful state of mind.
1) Sit or lie comfortably.
2) Close your eyes.
3) Make no effort to control the breath; simply breathe naturally.
Focus your attention on the breath and on how the body moves with each inhalation and exhalation. Notice the movement of your body as you breathe. Observe your chest, shoulders, rib cage, and belly. Simply focus your attention on your breath without controlling its pace or intensity. If your mind wanders, return your focus back to your breath.
4) Notice when your mind wanders from your breath.
5) Soften your gaze.
6) Notice what your arms are doing.
7) Notice what your legs are doing
Maintain this meditation practice for two to three minutes to start, and then try it for longer periods.
As you spend time practicing mindfulness, you’ll probably find yourself feeling kinder, calmer, and more patient. These shifts in your experience are likely to generate changes in other parts of your life as well.
Warnings and Precautions :
Many times meditation is helpful, but it can also have troubling side effects. Some meditation is not all calm and peace. It opens up space for you to see what’s going on in your mind. Psychological material (old resentments, wounds, trauma etc.) can surface that require additional support or even therapy. Mindfulness meditation is merely a tool or way for calming and focusing oneself. But, mindfulness meditation in its original Buddhist tradition is more about gaining insight into the human condition, reducing stress and suffering in our own hearts and minds, and also in the world of which we are apart. Extreme adverse reactions are rare and only likely to occur after prolonged periods of meditation, such as weeks on a silent retreat which can bring feelings of emptiness, fear, and ennui. Classical Buddhist literature discusses the potential pitfalls of mindfulness and meditation, such as makyō (hallucinations) and "Zen sickness" – a sense of imbalance and loss of identity.
If you are under depression or anxiety you should always consider your therapist before trying any form of meditation as this can bring back old resentments, trauma back. This potential side-effect or danger of meditation is important to know beforehand because if you’re diagnosed with a mental illness.
