Mindfulness Practice for
Stress Management

Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to every aspect of the present moment, moment after moment. It is a state of conscious awareness, rather than actively thinking, combined with an attitude of acceptance of whatever comes up.

It is a practice that brings calm and focus to each activity in life, with a noted absence of the usual frenetic thinking in one’s consciousness.

This is not to say that there are no thoughts involved whatsoever when practiced correctly. Rather, when thoughts do arise, they are treated as if they are another sense to which you pay attention, like sight, smell, sound, taste, and feel.

When one has practiced regularly, thoughts that arise during mindfulness practice are usually also less frequent and insistent, allowing you to “look at them” in a detached manner.

Since you are not “caught up in thought,” and not buying into it (at least not for very long), you are simply watching the thoughts, rather than being consumed by the activity of thinking.

When I first heard about this technique, I was amazed and fascinated. It simply had never occurred to me that I had a choice in how I use my consciousness and treat my thinking mind. I found it liberating just to think of the possibility!

You may have heard mindfulness defined more simply as “being here now,” and although this is a rather trite and simplistic way of describing it, it holds within it great truth.

Suppose you are sitting at a traffic light in your car, thinking about what was said at the dinner table last night, while also planning what you are going to say to your boss when you get to work.

In such a case, your body is here and now, but your mind is certainly not. Your mind is fragmented between the past and the future, engaged in activities known as remembering, planning, judging, and fantasizing.

This is the most common state of mind for most people, most of the time. When your mind is occupied in this manner, it is certainly not at peace or experiencing joy. On the other hand, to whatever degree one practices mindfulness, the seeds of peace and joy arise, and can be nurtured.

Since this practice actually rewires your brain and changes the way it functions, repetition and vigilance is helpful. It’s much like a physical workout is to the body, in that there are “muscles” you’ve never really used on purpose before, which need to be exercised.

Present moment awareness is another way to describe this practice, and it works best when done in tandem with at least 10-15 minutes of daily mindfulness meditation (extended description here). The specific meditation practice I’m referring to basically works the same “concentration muscle” of your brain. This in turn strengthens your ability to pay attention on purpose to exactly what you choose and intend to pay attention to, rather than to what your ego decides is important. Click here to learn more about Mindfulness Exercises