5 Tips to Experiencing Mindfulness

woman-meditating

John Kabat Zinn says “Mindfulness is the only intentional, systematic activity that is not about trying to improve yourself or get anywhere else. It is a matter of realizing where you already are.”

1. Set the intention that you are going to pay attention to what is happening at this present moment in all parts of your body. 

2. You can become mindful at any moment just by paying attention to your immediate experience. Ask yourself, What’s happening this very moment?” 

3. Think of yourself as the observer or witness to your life, and observe the present moment. What do I see, hear, smell, and feel?

4. When your mind wanders, just notice and say to yourself, “Now. Now. Now. Gently return your focus to the present moment. It is so natural for the mind to wander and we want to be patient and kind to ourselves when this happens.

5. As you breathe become aware of being alive. If you feel your abdomen rise on your in breath and can feel the heat through your nostrils on our out breath, you are alive. Nothing to do next. Just notice. You have arrived. This is it. You are doing it. No destination.

Check out the mindfulness You Tube Video by my friend Breon Michel, who is a mindfulness based stress reduction teacher who teachers the program developed by Jon Kabat Zinn in 1979.  If she can get the Army to be mindful she can help you too.