Meditation exercises that help us learn to live consciously and in the present moment; to separate ourselves from our emotional reactions, physical sensations and disturbing thoughts and find ourselves behind them. And when we become bigger, we automatically have the ability to endure, accept and transform them in order to live a more conscious, quality, and complete life.
We stop both clinging to them and turning away; we stop creating dams in the free flow of phenomena that lead us to tensions in our bodies, emotions and minds, to stress and depression, to disease. It brings us freedom. And this free world is revealed to us through a few simple exercises, such as breathing observation, observation of feelings, emotions and thoughts, careful movement, open awareness.
The practice of attentiveness is extremely simple when we think about it, and somewhat more difficult when we start to practice it: our mind is not used to just sitting and not used to watching ourselves; it is used to clinging, suffering and jumping from phenomenon to phenomenon like a wild monkey on branches.
To test it, start it right now: sit comfortably, evenly, with a straight back, close your eyes, set the timer for minutes, and sit them down, doing nothing at all: not planning, not dreaming, not moving, and not even watching anything deliberately.
It’s even a little more difficult to practice in life. The reverse is also true: a situation creates a situation. We can use every moment of our lives to be more fully present and more attentive.
And here it is important to say that our formal (sitting/laying/staying in meditation proper) and informal (conscious life proper) practices support each other: we sit in the practice because we want to be more attentive; finding that after that it is easier for us to be more attentive in life, we seek to further develop our skills.
Any time we discover that we are not present here and now, we can get our attention back, but only if we control it. The problem is that everything around us is distracting, our attention does not belong to us, and the mind, on a neurophysiological level, is predisposed to run away somewhere. According to research, more than 60% of the time we live our lives is in our thoughts, either in the past or in the future.
Awareness of yourself and your condition But it’s not that easy. It takes training to develop the ability to notice your absence, to blind yourself to thoughts, gadgets, emotions and to return to yourself over and over again. And when we start to develop contact with ourselves, with our body, emotions, thoughts, with all aspects of the experience we have at the moment, we get the opportunity to do a very simple thing manage our condition and our life.
Mindfulness is not a meditation technique, it is an approach that includes a set of exercises that aim to develop several skills. Attention management practice develops the skill of intentionally collecting your attention and directing it in the right direction as long as necessary. In addition, the width of our attention increases: the ability to notice more at the same time.
We learn to recognize ourselves more clearly and accurately at the level of body feelings, emotions and thoughts. As a result, we begin to better understand our needs and desires, recognize our limitations, and regulate our condition.
And we acquire the ability to maintain calm and inner balance in any situation without getting involved in emotions and thoughts. Also, we become more resistant to the emotional manifestations of others.