What is Mindfulness and why is it important to my mental and physical health?

Over the many recent years, many gurus, teachers, neuroscientists, psychologists, mentors and spiritual leaders have spoken about mindfulness and how important it is to live a happy life, a life free of mental (and physical troubles, a life in synchronicity with ourselves and whatever is going on around us. But, what is mindfulness and what does it mean to be mindful and most importantly, how do we become mindful in the midst of the chaos?

What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is to become aware. It is as simple as that. Becoming aware of what exactly? This depends to where do we want to direct our awareness. Consider mindfulness as a flashlight in your pocket. You can take it out of your pocket at any given time and shine it somewhere – wherever you shine this flashlight, you will bring light and awareness to the dark spots. Similarly, mindfulness is to become aware of something. There isn’t mindfulness without the object. The object of mindfulness is up to you to decide. You can become aware of your breath, your body, your mind, your thoughts, your feelings, certain situations you have at work, with your spouse, with your kids and your behavior in these situations. Mindfulness alone is not enough, we have to give it a direction and focus and bring awareness to a specific aspect of life – the object of mindfulness.

What does it mean to be mindful?

Being mindful means that you become aware of something. When I become aware of the natural flow of my breathing, my body automatically settles and relaxes. When my body settles and relaxes, my thoughts gradually become slower, then I can tap into how I am truly feeling. What emotion is present? Am I joyful, sad, bubbly, impatient and so on. But to become aware of our emotions, one way to do that is to become aware of our breath, and our body. What is my posture? Am I sitting on a chair cross legged, on a cushion on the floor? How are my muscles doing? Once I establish the awareness of my breathing, I can then through my breathing, invite awareness of my body, my mind or emotions and feelings.

To summarize, mindfulness means become aware of something. This something is the object of awareness. When I focus on myself, I focus on become aware of my breath and gradually on other aspects and constituents that make up my “self”.

How do I become mindful?

How do I practice mindfulness?

The short answer is, it is not rocket science. Becoming mindful of your breath as a first step is a process that requires commitment and consistency. When you have five minutes in your day, sit with an upright back on a chair, stool, cushion and become aware of your natural flow of your breath in and out. Thoughts will come, and thoughts will go. You will be challenged and you will get distracted. The only thing you can do, is to go back to your breathing – in and out with your natural flow of breath. Once you have established this as part of your daily routine, you can successfully say that you are practicing mindfulness. In this instance, mindfulness of your breath. What this brings is a moment to recalibrate during your day. A moment of peace. A moment of becoming in touch with the stillness that is in you.

What ever is going on out there, you have this practice at your fingertips to practice and anchor yourself in it. As simple as it seems reading it on a webpage, as powerful as it can b