What Exactly Is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is your raw experience of reality in the present moment. Raw means your experience without defining, categorizing, or labeling it. Without your wanting—not wanting, agreeing—disagreeing, or judging it. It’s uniting mind and body by bringing your attention to the present moment, not wandering off into the past or future or obsessing over wants and desires. Disengaging your brain’s autopilot and feeling the vibrations as you steer your attention down the here and now highway. Mindfulness is catching the fragrant scent of roses in the subtle breeze cooling your face as you stroll by, without the need to stop and smell them.

When you are mindful you are keeping your attention on what is happening in the same space, time, and reality which you occupy. You are observing what is happening within and outside of you with openness and acceptance. You’re feeling the breeze on your face,. You’re seeing the swaying of the trees. You’re hearing the many individual songs of each of the birds and how they’re free-styling back and forth, rather than a cacophony of meaningless noise. You feel the distribution of weight flow through different areas of your feet with each step, calm washes over your mind like a sink overflowing with warm soapy water cleansing yourself of the burdens that exist outside of this moment. You feel like you actually belong. You’re where, and when, and why you are supposed to be. There is no judgment and there is no wanting or lacking, there only is.

Mindfulness is the window into our thoughts, feelings, and actions. When we are mindful, we are the observer. Mindfulness allows us to witness ourselves with absolute transparency, before the mind begins warping reality. Without mindfulness we only see fragments of the whole picture, like watching a video stream with buffering issues. We might not even realize physical actions we’re carrying out, such as biting our nails or some other nervous tick. Life and even ourselves can often be very cloudy and difficult to understand. With mindfulness, we see all our thoughts, feelings, and actions with clarity. We receive all the data, with none of the corruption.

Why Practice Mindfulness

Without mindfulness we’re relying on a middleman, we’re receiving a version of reality our brain relays to us. This is a reality distorted by desire, fear, and an incessant need to fill in the blanks. When you’re hungry, clouds begin to seem in the shape of food. When you’re horny, you’re suddenly seeing attractive people everywhere. When you’re fearful, everyone walking down the street seems dangerous. When you see someone at a distance, you think it’s your friend only to get closer and find they’re a stranger, then feel awkward for staring at them and almost speaking before turning away in your realization. When in a mindful state, you see the stranger as the blurry human shaped form they are and you attach no meaning or label to them.

Being mindful keeps you more in tune with everything and everyone around you. You’ll be better at picking up on people’s emotions and what they’re thinking in the moment. This can make you a better friend, lover, and detector of bullshit. You’ll even find you become a better predictor of changes in the weather. You’ll see more wildlife, even in the city, and hear the individual songs of the birds. You’ll be affected less by things like temperature and discomfort as they will just be something else to mindfully experience. Your mood will improve. Boredom will cease to exist to an extent. Your understanding of life and how everything works will improve significantly, you’ll see a broader palette of cause and effect instead of the narrow one that fits your identity and point of view.

Absorbing more information, without distortion by the mind, will show you how things actually work and what people are truly like. For better or worse. With a clearer understanding, you will be in a position to make better decisions and know when you should act or let things be. Mindfulness will take a heavy weight off your shoulders as we all carry around a little worry, stress, and anger along with the many other things on our minds. In mindfulness, those things will melt away and you’ll feel it in the release of tension throughout your body. We don’t realize just how much our minds are distorting our reality and sense of well being. You won’t forget your problems but you don’t need to let them weigh you down in every moment of the day.

How To Achieve Mindfulness

If you want to practice mindfulness, the best thing you can do is start a daily meditation practice. Meditation is a form of mindfulness practice, it will help you achieve living in the present moment mindfully and show you the actual experience of mindfulness. You can practice mindfulness outside of meditation as well. Pick a menial task you have to do, like folding laundry. Instead of wandering off to fantasy land in your head or stressing about the rest of your chores, take this time to be mindful. Keep your attention in the present moment by bringing it to your breath. Once you’re here and now, with your breath, start folding. Is your laundry warm and fresh from the dryer? Feel the warmth and take in the pleasant smell. Note how different the various fabrics feel. Some smooth, some rough, and some buzzing with static. Fold each piece with your full attention and care, study the movement of your hands as they fold. It might be the best you’ve ever folded laundry before.

If you catch yourself thinking, “this is weird”, “this is taking too long”, or “this is boring” then you know you are outside the moment and you need to come back to the present moment and just fold. The more you practice mindfulness in the slow boring moments, the better you’ll be able to when there’s way more sensory input. Once you’re able to be mindful in most everyday situations you’ll really start to see the benefits it brings.

Being mindful is not a destination, achievement, or milestone you reach. It’s a bearing, you can head in the right direction in one moment then veer off the path in the next. We must keep checking our compass to verify we’re heading the right way. It’s an ongoing endeavor, an ideal we strive for, and a state of mind. Practicing mindfulness is practicing being honest with ourselves. The more you’re honest with yourself, the better your life will be.