Cultivating Mindfulness

Cultivate Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a moment to moment non-judgmental awareness.
Just as the muscles of our body hold on to stress and tension so does the mind hold on to tension by attending rigidly to our judgments and negative emotions. If we spend any time noticing what is going on in our minds we will see that we are almost always judging and evaluating. "I could have/should have done that better." "I resent the way that person spoke to me last week." "I am worried that I am not going to be prepared for that presentation or test next week and everyone will think I'm a fool."

Cultivating mindfulness in our daily experience and activities is a very effective way to counteract our innate tendency to judge and hold on to negative emotions.

Practice mindfulness by setting aside at least a 15 or 20 minute quiet time each day in which you suspend your judgments and normal problem solving activity in order to just "be".

Practice giving your full attention to one activity at a time (rather than multi-tasking), e.g., when preparing or eating a meal, taking a walk outside, working in the garden.