Skip to main content

Introduction to mindfulness

By Dr Sophie Jayamaha



Mindfulness can be defined many ways but most simple and practical approach is to bring your awareness in to the present moment experience and noticing it without judging only through your own interpretation, because our own interpretations are based on limited information and limited awareness.

We can improve our awareness through mindfulness.
Everything we see, hear, smell, touch, taste and feel are subjected to how we perceive and interpret with our own limited knowledge about them.

Therefore they do not give us the true and whole picture of what we perceive. It is like a blind man touching one part of an elephant and interpreting what an elephant is.
When we begin to notice things, places and people as they are without bringing our own interpretation so firmly, we tend to open and allow different perspectives and different views.  Then we begin to notice them differently to how we perceived before. When you change the way you see, what you look at change.

When we begin to see things with openness our mental reactions and physical activity change. Then our expectations change. We will not get so tensed, upset and angry, when things do not go according to the plan. We learn to accept things that we can’t change and we learn to change us if things are not acceptable to us. We will learn not to depend on others to please us.

Mindfulness practice trains the brain to be in a state of heightened awareness of our thoughts, emotions and reactions in the body to our emotions.   It is not easy to discipline the mind to remember to be aware without being distracted. That requires repetitive practice.

Every time when you notice that you mind has distracted and you are not aware that you are aware, bring the mind back to the present moment awareness. Every time you notice distraction, you become mindful. The more times you notice your distraction, the more you become mindful.

There are many ways to maintain your conscious awareness in the present moment.
Simply,
Be aware of your breath,
Be aware of what you are thinking and
Be aware of your body posture and sensations
Be aware of your surroundings.
When you are fully aware of all of the above, you begin to feel grounded, relaxed, calm, confident and contented.

© Copyrights reserved by Dr. S. Jayamaha 2016-10-05

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

To Be Or Not To Be A Vegetarian Is The Question

By Dr Sophie Jayamaha
Meat consumption and vegetarianism are both two ends of the same stick.  They are both created by people for the same reasons, thinking that both are right. Being right is only one of the reasons and you will find the other as you read. But this billion dollar question has no such simple answer or one right answer.  Let's look at the big picture. All vegetarians are not vegetarians because they love animals. Most vegetarians do so because of health reasons. Many animal lovers are also meat eating people. They eat meat because they too believe it provides nutrition and also they love the taste. Humans kill animals for various reasons and most people who kill animals are not the ones who eat them. They kill to sell and killing  animals is a legal and acceptable trade which is a significant source of economy of certain countries such as USA, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. If people don't eat animals then there is no trade. But animals would be in pe...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is the purpose of your meditation?

By Dr Sophie Jayamaha
Meditation is a very much confused activity with so many objectives and interpretations. The mediator must first choose why he or she chooses to meditate. Hindu and other religious meditations are for the purpose of controlling the mind and to bring it to a single point of attention with high intensity of concentration. That is not the path Buddha described. That is not the object of meditation Buddhists are meant to do. A Buddhist means a person who is exploring and investigating to understand the four noble truths, (what suffering is, cause of suffering, the path of ending all suffering and ending all suffering). Anyone grew up with other religions would also be a Buddhist, if that person seeks to understand four noble truths. Misguided Buddhists also do this concentration technique wrongly labelled with many names including anapanasathi and watching arising and ceasing, mindfulness, samadhi etc, because they have not yet come across original Buddha's teachings and not have heard...
Post a Comment
Read more

Untreated Mental Illness is a Threat to the Public

By Dr Sophie Jayamaha
The convicted driver who was ploughing people in a car, across a pedestrianised area in Melbourne is of Afghan origin. His action may well be a deliberate act of revenge and a protest, against recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel or any other reason. However not every Muslim would protest this way by harming innocent people. It is the mental state of a person which determines his or her behaviour. What is the difference between a mindset of a violent man with a mental illness and a terrorist? Anyone who inflicts harm on innocent people are mentally ill. An act of terrorism is also an act of an untreated mental illness. Mental illness is a more common than terrorism and when untreated it becomes a threat to our peace than terrorism.  People who are under the influence of drugs, alcohol are in mentally distorted states. Other mentally distorted states when people behave violently are anxiety, depression, anger and overwhelming psychological stress. ...
Post a Comment
Read more