Mindfulness in Modern Day
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Mindfulness is the practice of having your full attention on the here and now, without judgement. I have been practicing mindfulness since I was in high school. Does this make me an expert? Absolutely not. In fact, I still feel like I do not truly know what mindfulness is. I have read books, watched videos, spoken to professionals, and practiced it. Jon Kabat-Zinn is one of my absolute favorite authors and sources of information on the subject. Still, though, I feel a disconnect from the practice. Something in me is screaming "you're not doing it right!" Could this be my own self-critical gremlin in my mind? Sure could be, but I feel like there's more to it.
When you look at the origins of mindfulness and it's relation to the Buddhist religion/spirituality, you begin to see that it comes from a world that is NOTHING like the world we live in, in modern day America. One of the concepts I have struggled with is truly "letting go" of attachments, hyper-fixations, and distractions from the practice. I feel like to survive as a person, not just an adult, in this country you must be vigilant, protective, and always ready to pivot. In other words, I feel like I am in fight-or-flight mode pretty frequently so that I can survive. How could I possibly let that go, even if only for a moment of practice while meditating?
My life thus far has rewarded me for being vigilant, or what I think it really is, is scared. I have proven myself successful due to my constant awareness of everything that could go wrong. My mindset has become, "if you're always ready and always thinking about what could go wrong, you can always protect yourself." This has been exhausting to say the least. So, back to mindfulness practice. I try and try to detach, let go, be fully present right here, right now. But my mind continues to scream "you can't let go, because if you do something bad is going to happen and you will lose everything you worked so hard to get!"
How rude my mind gremlin is...but I feel like a lot of us in this country feel this way to some degree. This makes mindfulness and Buddhist practice VERY difficult in our culture. Not only do we have to fight our own minds to let go, we have to set really strong boundaries for other people and responsibilities in our lives to even allow us to let go. I am currently trying to find a balance between our modern day lives and mindfulness practice. I believe such a thing exists, and thankfully I am at a time in my life where I have the luxury to explore this a bit.
I do know one technique that has helped me with this, which is positive affirmations. Positive affirmations are statements/mottos you recite to yourself either in your head or out loud that fosters positivity. For example, one of the affirmations I use when trying to let go is, "you are safe right now." The important thing is it must be something you can learn to believe in (it must be realistic). Sometimes I get very discouraged by the dissonance between mindfulness practice and our current culture; so discouraged that I will set it aside for months, and even years. This is a gentle reminder to myself that if you stop looking for the balance, you will never find it. Mindfulness is so important to me, and thus worth the challenge.
Have you ever explored mindfulness and/or Buddhism? Have you also found it difficult to implement in today's culture in America? Below are some resources I wanted to provide about mindfulness, its' benefits, and practice. Please check them out! Thanks for reading.
Jon Kabat-Zinn's own website:
A research article on the effects of mindfulness on psychological health:
Getting started with mindfulness (includes video by Jon Kabat-Zinn - "Me, Me, Me")
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