We can practice mindfulness everywhere anytime.
However, our monkey mind takes our focus away.
What is Monkey Mind?
Monkey mind causes our mind to be unsettled, restless, or confused. Our minds keep jumping from topic to topic, or from a memory to another, or from a thought to another. This is like a monkey that jumps from a tree to another. Even on a branch the monkey is very restless. This restless and unsettled mind takes our focus, relaxation, and mindfulness away. It prevents us from enjoying the moment.
Don’t Fight with Your Restless Mind
The trick is not to fight with your monkey mind. Rather let it be and provide the mind with a simple task to focus on. For example, breathing. And when you let your mind focus on breathing, the mind will wade away. When it wades away, let it come back. It is the nature of the mind to be filled with chatter. And the same chattery mind can be trained to ignore the background thoughts and focus on a simple task like focusing on breathing.
Even focusing on few breaths, inhaling, and exhaling would help you train your mind better.
Mind is a Miracle
Think of nothing and concentrate does not work. To be mindful, your brain does not have to be frozen.
If your thoughts keep coming and going, and you want to stop it by force, then you are forcing the mind to stop. That is not in harmony with the way your mind works. Maybe you are feeding too much with too much bad input by forcing it. Let your mind be and watch it from a distance. For example, imagine you are in traffic and you are stressed about it. Now, imagine you are not in traffic but watching it from a distance. When you away from the traffic, then you do not have the same stressed feeling. Hence, the space you provide for your mind rather than sticking it to surroundings will help you relax and fucus the mind better on mindfulness.
You must provide some space between you and your mind.
Take a Moment
Take a moment to sit. Take a moment to breathe. Take a moment to stare at the night sky. Take a moment to watch candle flame. Take a moment to put your thoughts down.
A moment will provide you some time and space for your mind to relax.
If you do not let you have few moments of life every day for yourself, you cannot prevent mental exhaustion.
Rather than spending lot of time struggling to meditate, taking few moments regularly for yourself will enhance your mindfulness tremendously.
Improved Mind
While your mind could be restless and unsettled when you start, when you practice mindfulness simple techniques for some time, you will notice drastic improvements. You will find out that you are in harmony with your own mind.
The stories you tell yourself will improve. You would have a better and more compelling story. Your storytelling will have positive and optimistic outlook.
You will have better choices to focus on as opposed to the depressing and hopeless choices you used to worry about in the past.
Improved mind is centred, calm and focused. It will also have lot more control on how you respond to situations. You would seek happiness within yourself rather than with external material, situations, or other people.
When you seek growth, contribution, and connection with a mindful approach you have better chance of finding your happiness.
In Summary
- Mindfulness can be practiced anywhere anytime
- Invite your mind to focus on a simple task breathing
- Provide some space for your mind
- Take a moment and provide some time and space for your mind to relax
- Improved mind is centred, calm and focused
- With an improved mind you seek growth, contribution, and connection
- Mindfulness leads to inner peace and happiness
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