Mindfulness
Applied
After going through the different forms of meditation on the previous page, you may ask yourself, "Can I meditate while doing anything?"
The answer is YES.
A more fitting term may be called mindfulness.
From the internet:
mindfulness
- the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something
- a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique
I will define mindfulness as awareness without judgment.
This does not mean that if you are being judgmental, you are not being mindful. You can be judgmental and be mindful of how you are being judgmental.
What this means is to be one with the awareness that transcends judgment. This is the same awareness that you were practicing becoming one with in the meditation section.
It is the same awareness that observes your thoughts and feelings.
When we judge things, we create attachments to them. These things then start to have power over our minds.
However, when we can be aware of things without judging them, we can observe them without attachment. This gives us clarity, and it allows for thoughts and feelings to fade away from our mind.
Mindfulness 24/7
After you learn how to be present/mindful during meditation, you should work on being present/mindful throughout the day. Most people cannot live in the mountains and meditate 24/7. They have jobs, family, friends, activities, etc. This is fine and all, but we must work to bring presence/mindfulness to our daily activities.
As you start to become more mindful/present throughout the day, you will start to notice subconscious patterns. These are the same subconscious patterns that you encountered during your meditation. The thoughts that seemed to crowd your mind as you first started to meditate are a big part of these subconscious patterns.
It is important for us to learn how to resolve these subconscious patterns. In order to do that, we must first be fully present with all aspects of those patterns. Then, we can use the unlimited potential of our minds to deconstruct those patterns.
How can we tap into the unlimited potential of our minds?