Mindfulness and Meditation

Our daily lives are often filled with judgment. When I say Judgment, I don’t necessarily mean a negative label. I mean, any label. What is a Judgment? A Judgment, simply put, is any label assigned to an experience. ‘Good’ ‘bad’, ‘interesting’, ‘useless’ are a few obvious ones. Once you have labeled something as ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘I like’, or ‘I don’t like’; what follows are shoulds and should nots – I should engage with this experience, or, I should not engage with this. For example, –  You are in an auto rickshaw and feeling the breeze as you ride. You might feel happy or relieved to feel the breeze. However, almost immediately, you might label that experience as ‘fruitless’ , or ‘what’s the point of this when all’s not well at work, my relationships are so difficult, things are not working out’ and so on. Want To Start Practicing Mindfulness Meditation? Mindfulness is a beautiful practice that helps us become rooted in life. It involves getting our minds back to the present and paying attention to the life that is unfolding right now within and around us. Start Here Why is it important to cultivate non-judgmental mindfulness as a practice? 1. Judgment Comes at a Cost to You. We have an average of 70,000 to 80,000 thoughts per day, that’s an average of 2500 to 3200 thoughts per hour. Several of these thoughts are Judgments. If you pay some attention to the mind, you will find that it is constantly judging experiences as ‘important’ and ‘unimportant’, if not ‘good/bad’. What happens as a result is: 2. Negative Experiences are Amplified. Often, the things we dismiss as being unimportant are neutral moments like the 4th or 5th sip of tea, driving along the roads, walking along the street, brushing, bathing, etc. If you stop to watch what truly goes on in the mind during these neutral moments, you’ll see that several times, it will go right back to things that cannot be fixed, or are yet to be fixed. It will go back to something that is not yet okay. This will sometimes be a small issue, like what show to watch tonight or what to cook and sometimes a bigger difficulty like a difficult exam or a difficult relationship. Irrespective, the mind goes back to something like this several times each day. As a result, problems get amplified and a lot of mind space is dedicated to them. 3. Unhappiness Sets In. You can very well imagine what could happen to a mind that constantly thinks of problems, things to fix; a mind that is always thinking of something other than what is. Such a mind is hardly content. It is hardly able to rest in what is. A mind that constantly worries about problems naturally also moves to being an increasingly unhappy mind. 4. There is Lesser Space to Accept and Work with What Is. This tendency to judge and put things in boxes leaves you with lesser space to accept what is. As a consequence, discontent and suffering increase. Let me give you a simple example. Say you are stuck in a traffic jam or are waiting in a long queue. f you are caught in thoughts of how the experience is ‘horrible’, ‘terrible’, and ‘why does this have to be?’, What follows is a stronger repulsion against the experience. As long as you are in the experience, and even afterwards, your suffering is greater. Versus If you wait while simply noticing the people around, the activity on the street or in the room, feeling your hands on the steering wheel or your breath, the experience of having to wait may not be pleasant, but is likely to be far less distressful. You discover some space to wait and there is more peace in your system as you wait. Non-Judgmental Mindfulness : Where to Begin? Recognize Judgment: A simple first step to cultivating non-judgmental mindfulness is to simply recognize Judgment when it comes up. Gently know when Judgment or labels have come up, non-Judgmentally! Don’t Judge the Judgmental Mind: It is important not to judge the judging, but to simply recognize it as a habit of the mind, not just your mind, but the human mind. Slowly come back to the present moment: Coming back to the immediate experience of sights, sounds around you, coming back to the breath can anchor you in the present, slowly reducing the hold that mental chatter has on you. About the Author This article was written by Counselors & Mindfulness Trainers at Inner Space. Ask a Therapist If you are interested to know more about mindfulness and other mental health topics, ‘Ask A Therapist’ is a platform for you to ask your questions related to Mental Health, Mindfulness & Emotional Well-Being to our team of qualified Therapists. Ask a Therapist Related Blogs What Is Meditation? How To Use Mindfulness During Stressful Situations Cultivating A Beginner’s Mind

The purpose of this article is to help you be more aware of the nature of your smile through a simple mindfulness practice. Here are some questions for you to answer: What is your smile like? Is it a smirk? Is it a big toothy grin?Are you aware of your smile when in conversation with others and also when you are alone?Do you smile often?Do you have a serious look?Do you smile at yourself when you look in the mirror?Some of the questions may have been easy to answer, some not so easy. Here is how you can try this mindfulness practice to notice and be more mindful of your smile. Want To Start Practicing Mindfulness Meditation? Mindfulness is a beautiful practice that helps us become rooted in life. It involves getting our minds back to the present and paying attention to the life that is unfolding right now within and around us. Start Here A Simple, Mindfulness Practice To Start Smiling ‘Mindfully’ 1. Bring your smile into your awareness: From the time you wake up till the time you go to bed stay with awareness of your smile. Take note of the times you smile.  Take note of the times you are not smiling. Do not force your smile to appear or try to keep it away. 2. Notice how smiling makes you feel: Be aware of what the different sensations and movements in your body as you smile. Feel how your cheeks respond to your smile. It may also stir some senses in the rest of your body; observe how the smile makes you feel in your chest center and your stomach. Can you feel the smile in your toes or anywhere else in the body? Do your eyes smile along with your lips? Also notice yourself when you are not smiling. Do you have a straight face? Do your lips turn downwards into a curve? Does your face tend to naturally pout? Be aware of what you do with your lips when you are not speaking. Use this mindfulness practice to stay in awareness. A beautiful excerpt from Thich Nhat Hahn’s book, Being Peace, helps put mindful smiling into perspective: During walking meditation, during kitchen and garden work, during sitting meditation, all day long, we can practice smiling. At first you may find it difficult to smile, and we have to think about why. Smiling means that we are ourselves, that we are not drowned into forgetfulness. This kind of smile can be seen on the faces of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. I would like to offer one short poem you can recite from time to time, while breathing and smiling. Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment. About the Author This article was written by Counselors & Mindfulness Trainers at Inner Space. Ask a Therapist If you are interested to know more about mindfulness and other mental health topics, ‘Ask A Therapist’ is a platform for you to ask your questions related to Mental Health, Mindfulness & Emotional Well-Being to our team of qualified Therapists. Ask a Therapist Related Blogs What Is Meditation? How To Use Mindfulness During Stressful Situations Cultivating A Beginner’s Mind

In the hustle and bustle of your daily life, do you find yourself always on the run? Constantly moving from one place to another or from one task to another? What are the kind of things that you pay attention to? Things to be done, the breaking news on television and your phone amongst many things. In this flurry of experiences, when was the last time you stopped to notice an act of kindness? Research does indicate that humans have a tendency to pay attention to the negative as opposed to the positive. Negative acts are more obvious to the eye than positive acts. The good news is, you can choose to consciously bring your attention to the things you want to notice. And you can begin by choosing to notice kindness in the world around you. Want To Start Practicing Mindfulness Meditation? Mindfulness is a beautiful practice that helps us become rooted in life. It involves getting our minds back to the present and paying attention to the life that is unfolding right now within and around us. Start Here Mindfulness Exercise: Noticing Acts of Kindness “Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” – Mark Twain It can sometimes feel like joy and kindness don’t exist in the world anymore but the truth is, it is a matter of paying attention and noticing these moments. If you were ever a part of the girls guide or boys scout camp in school; you would remember the ‘one good deed a day’ policy. In this exercise you need to just notice the act of kindness which you may observe or experience in your day to day life. Here are some examples: A smile of acknowledgment when someone sees you Your watchman opening the door for you Your household helper doing work to make your home more comfortable Someone who was polite to you and said – a please, a thank you, a sorry, a forgive me or an excuse me Someone who texted /called/emailed you a joke or an inspiring read or just a random ‘how are you’ message These are just a few examples – and we are sure there must be plenty more that you’ll have an opportunity to observe throughout your day. Sometimes we are too busy just looking at the ground that we fail to see the blue skies above our head. At the end of the day, we urge you to introspect on and notice each act of kindness that you witnessed and allow yourself to take it in! About the Author This article was written by Counselors & Mindfulness Trainers at Inner Space. Ask a Therapist If you are interested to know more about mindfulness and other mental health topics, ‘Ask A Therapist’ is a platform for you to ask your questions related to Mental Health, Mindfulness & Emotional Well-Being to our team of qualified Therapists. Ask a Therapist Related Blogs What Is Meditation? How To Use Mindfulness During Stressful Situations Cultivating A Beginner’s Mind