What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness uses a mix of meditative and movement techniques to bring awareness to each moment of our experience.
This helps us to be more present with our lives as they unfold because by tuning into what is happening in each moment, we can really connect with what is happening in our bodies, hearts and minds.
Why not try mindfulness right now?
If you're willing, perhaps see if you can tune into what it's like to be reading these pages. This might mean noticing:
- How are you sitting? How do your back, shoulders, your head and face feel?
- What's it like for your eyes to travel backwards and forwards, and around the page?
- How is it to take an in-breath... and then breathe out again?
We don't often take the time to come out of our heads and into our bodies and the present moment.
Mindfulness offers a way of plugging into the 'now'. This doesn't mean shutting things out but just
re-connecting with how we are and what's happening around us.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, one of the founders of modern approaches to Mindfulness says it is:
"paying attention in a particular way:
on purpose, in the present moment, and non judgementally"
on purpose, in the present moment, and non judgementally"
'Paying attention' to what is going on right there, as you sit and breathe as well as allowing your experiences of breathing / thinking / physical sensations to be just as they are - that's the start of mindfulness training.