Mindfulness- A way of life

Mindfulness- A way of life

“With mindfulness you can establish yourself in the present, in order to touch the wonders of life that are available at that moment.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present and aware of where we are and what we’re doing in the present moment. A step further, it means presence of mind, body and soul into what we experience every moment. While we go through day-to-day chores, if our body is into some action, mind should be co-relating and analysing the same action, experiencing synchronous emotions and soul should be searching for meanings, and reasons about the same. When our words, actions and thoughts are at one place, every minute of the hour and every hour of the day- is mindfulness. You may think what’s the big deal? Well. It is a big deal. Because, this simple practice of being in the present moment changes life.

How much do we like to be on auto-pilot mode? Don’t we just rush through the morning routines, planning ahead for the rest of the day? Or don’t we have meals while checking our whatsapp/ Instagram, or watching news, movies, videos? Don’t we drive to our destinations, totally lost in our thoughts and then wonder how mechanical the act was after reaching there? And we then think we have become so smart that we multitask effortlessly. Bravo!

But have you ever given a thought that, what all and how much this mindless multitasking is costing you? By the virtue of this smartness and multitasking- we tend to live either in the past or in the future. Thinking about the past gives us guilt and depression while the thoughts about our future cause us anxiety. Even though we multitask, we are always deprived of time and energy, we have incomplete tasks to be done next day and we always feel we are drained or that we have not slept/rested enough. Though we stay updated, we are not happy and satisfied, we are constantly worrying, we are under stress constantly. We need to pause and reflect – why this happens to us, in spite of being so smart, updated and multitasking all the time? We never realise that this smartness is slowly and steadily taking a toll, not only on our physical health, but mental health, as well. It is a dire need to contemplate on how multitasking steals away our peace of mind? How much irrelevant information we consume, every day, for the sake of staying updated? Are we achieving enough by being present in bits and bites everywhere or can we achieve more, by being fully present at one place at a given moment?

Certainly, mindfulness is the key to achieving more. When we are present in the present moment with our mind, body and soul, we get immense clarity on the things we are doing and things happening around us. For example, if we eat mindfully, we tend to eat healthier foodstuffs. If we stop binging on information or videos of less importance, we can go to bed earlier and can get up earlier or spend some quality time with our loved ones. It is said- early to bed, early to rise, makes us healthy, wealthy and wise. Mindfulness is the real wisdom.

Mindfulness is playing and laughing with our children rather than letting them free with their phones while we check ours. Mindfulness is acknowledging the wind, the flowers, the butterflies even the clouds, during a morning or evening walk. Mindfulness is looking deeply into the eyes of your partner while talking to him/her and not checking your mails. Mindfulness is appreciating the abundance around you, rather than complaining that, you don’t have enough. Mindfulness is praying to God as if he is listening to each and every word you say, rather than, merely chanting his name with a wandering mind.

Be mindful of your thoughts. If you are mindful of your thoughts, you will think only positive and the negative will automatically leave. Thus, there will be more clarity as your thoughts are positive, unbiased and pure. Clarity of thoughts makes us more efficient in taking decisions for the benefit of ourselves and others. Practising mindfulness makes us more alert to opportunities that are there in our surroundings, so that, we don’t miss any. Mindfulness helps us acknowledge the little wonders and little happiness we experience, every day in our lives. This in turn, increases the gratitude we feel towards those little things in life. When we are filled with gratitude, we attract more happiness and abundance, and when we are abundant, we tend to offer help to people around us and thus goodwill is built up. As the gratitude and goodwill grows, we feel our life is more meaningful. With this realisation, comes satisfaction. When satisfaction grows, we experience peace and we radiate peace. Due to this radiated peace and building up of goodwill, conflicts in our relationships start decreasing and we tend to connect with others deeply. Deeper connections with other human beings, results in exchange of love, support and kindness. The Universe returns this love, support and kindness to us multiplied, and our life is sorted. No more guilt, no more depression and no more anxiety- because- you are loved, you are peaceful, you have support, you are treated kindly, you feel grateful and content, you grow as you mindfully grab opportunities and you prosper as you give 100% mind, body and soul to your work. What else do you want from life?

Be mindful. Practice mindfulness.

After all life is about rising above the storm and finding the sunshine.

Dr. Namita Deshmukh