Mindfulness was an underestimated term for a very long time. Mainly due to the fact that it was treated as a term, as an another piece of knowledge – some spiritual definition or a mind content to learn.
Recently it’s booming massively and it seems that it is only a beginning of a new great movement and a revolution in consciousness.
Why that happened? The answer is simple – many people crossed the line and discovered that it’s not only a term or a knowledge.
It’s a gateway to an awakening.
That’s what is mindfulness for.
The most important thing that you have to know about mindfulness is that it is a practice more than an ideology or a knowledge. You have to practice it in order to understand / feel its effects. And when you will feel them for the first time, you won’t take a step back.
You will see that the moment when you will feel the glimpses of the real presence – of the bliss and the pleasant inner peace that it brings – will be possibly the most important ‘aha’ moment in your life.
How to practice mindfulness? I will get to that soon. First let’s have a quick look at the benefits of it – how mindfulness can improve your life.
What is Mindfulness for?
The answer is pretty simple – it can improve any area of your life.
- Improves mental and physic health.
- Opens your mind
- It’s a great help in relationships
- Makes your social life better
- Improves your confidence
- Gives you inner stillness
- Helps you to get better at work
- and many more….
The list can be longer but I would like to explain you here why is that and how it is possible that Mindfulness helps in all these areas. If you will understand the reason why, then you can add more points to the list above by yourself.
Mindfulness is an appreciation and acceptance of the present moment as it is. This simple act of accepting the now is rooting you in the present moment and the reality. It gives you a pleasant inner peace that will open many doors in front of you.
Mindfulness gives you inner stillness and distance to the world. You can see the bigger picture. You can control your mind and see your own thought patterns. When you get to see the bigger picture, you can improve all things in your life.
You will feel better and you will be no longer controlled by anything including your own mind. You will quickly come to an amazing realization -that you are not your mind.
That the mind is only a tool that has been given to you and you can make possible corrections in the way you use it.
The vast majority of the people in this world are compulsive thinkers, they don’t even realize it as this state is so normal for them. In the moment when you will learn to stop your mind and to be fully present, you will understand how many possibilities it creates.
The first step is to understand what I said above. You may not fully grasp it if you are reading about this for the first time, but you will understand it very soon – when you will try it.
The first gap in the stream of thoughts, that your mind constantly creates, will move into a state of presence.
And this is the second step. I will tell you here how to do it. How to be present. The word ‘present’ may sound simple and banal for you, but very possibly you have never felt that way before. Being ‘present’ is only a term, a word, more accurately we could have call it a ‘state of no-mind’. A feeling of a deep alertness and aliveness. At the beginning you may just feel it for a brief moment, but eventually (with practice) it will stay with you longer.
Presence, being in the NOW opens all the gates in front of you. Possibly you will see things from a new perspective, maybe you will change things in your life, maybe you will reset your goals (if you will ever need them since).
The real answer for your question what is mindfulness for is that you can answer it by yourself.
After you will start to feel fully present and you will be able to experience gaps in your thinking process, the new quality of life will emerge for you.
You will experience increased sense of freedom and perhaps you will come to a conclusion that mindfulness is a goal itself.
For sure it’s the best goal that you can have on the spiritual level, on the level where you are finding your true self.
A true self that is beyond the ego, that sees more and eventually is something more than only the mind.
You are an inseparable part of the universe and from this perspective you will look at things after you will experience the awakening from your ego.
If you would wish to set or achieve new goals on an external level – your career goals, relationship goals or others, it will be easier for you to achieve them than ever.
You will understand that you can’t seek your better self in the future as you already have all you need within yourself.
You can discover it only now, as NOW is all there really is.
How to be present.
There are a few gateways into presence. Your own body is the best anchor that can root you into presence. Try to feel your own body from within, feel its energy. If this is difficult for you in the beginning, you can simply start from feeling your hands. The energy within them. You should feel how almost immediately your mind is becoming more still and the thinking process stops.
Stay there, feel your body and just observe the occasional thoughts that may come. Let the thoughts go for the moment. To stay rooted in the presence, remember to focus on feeling your body.
There are more gateways that you can use.
One of the very powerful tools is seeking for the silence among the sounds. There is always a dimension of silence around you. All the sounds are coming from a background of silence. Look for the silence among the sounds. It moves you into the present moment.
Another gateway can be feeling your own breath. Observe your own breathing. Follow your breath – in and out.
There is one more powerful exercise that you can practice. When you will learn to feel your body (your hands / you can also focus on your breath), try to wait for your next thought.
Observe your mind as a rabbit hole. Wait for the next thought to appear. When it will, just let it go for the moment. During that exercise, try to stay in touch with your body to stay present. It’s a powerful practice.
It will help you to stay in the present moment for a longer while, not letting your mind (compulsive thinking) to take you over.
The most important thing.
You have to practice mindfulness. This is the crucial thing, the deepness of presence can be achieved only by practice. Don’t worry, it will be a nice and joyful path for you and the final destination is priceless.
We have a separate article on this website about practicing mindfulness. You can find it here.
If you wish to get to know more about being fully present and how being in the NOW can change your life I strongly recommend “The Power Of Now” book written by Eckhart Tolle.
There are also many video on YouTube where Eckhart is addressing presence and being in the now. I encourage you to check them out as well, they are a great addition to the books.
Here is a quote that is describing Eckhart Tolle’s talents to pass the awakening message to the people:
“ His secret, according to fans, publishing industry experts and booksellers, is packing thousands of years of teaching — from Buddha, Jesus, Shakespeare and even the Rolling Stones — into what one of his publishers, Constance Kellough, called <a clean contemporary bottle>”
– The New York Times
Good luck and stay present 🙂