Monday, June 13, 2016

Mindfulness and being happy

Health and happiness should be a focal point for our lives.


Mindfulness meditation is a tool we can use to build a happier and healthier life. Meditation is often thought of as the practice of sitting on the floor in an uncomfortable cross-legged position while trying to empty our heads of all thoughts maybe chanting a "mantra" or saying to oneself. That is not the case with mindfulness meditation.


This pendent was created as a focal point, a reminder of our ability to choose and be happier healthier people.  It says "I am present in the moment with each breath I take". In focusing on our breathing we are more able to be truly present in the moment because what is more now than our current breath?

The idea of mindfulness meditation is to become present in the moment. Life after all is one moment after another strung together for some number of years, days and minutes. We cannot live our past again nor can we live in the future. Focusing on our past often is experienced as regret and on the future as worry. However, in the present we have something we can never have in the past or future, we have choice.



Too often our choices we make are driven by thoughts that "run away with us" sometimes experienced as day dreaming, sometimes as a self critical voice, sometimes reading things into others actions we could not actually know but assume to be the case. When we act from this habitual less conscious type of thinking it is often more of an instinctive reaction than an action we choose. In my experience and perhaps your own, acting without presence of mind or pausing to consider things seldom has a positive outcome.

Remember when a parent told you if you find yourself getting upset to count to ten or take a deep breath? Turns out they were teaching you the ancient Eastern philosophy and practice of Mindfulness meditation! Yes, your mom or dad were without knowing it quite the Zen masters!

When we pause to take a deep breath or count to ten we are interrupting our habitual and reactive mind from running away with us and that interruption gives us time to step back into the present moment. That is what being mindful is. It is the opportunity to be in the present moment and as such able to make choices about our next thoughts and actions. We hope these thoughts and actions or feelings we choose will be healthier productive ones but just the fact that we have the choice is by itself a very worth while thing to achieve.

The more we can be aware of our thoughts and feelings and experiences the more we can really live our lives and make choices that lead us to greater health and happiness.

Health and happiness is I believe the greatest wealth, the true wealth in life.  Money while being necessary to live in our modern civilization does not necessarily bring happiness. Having our basic needs met for food, housing and clothing does help us to be content and not having these things often brings unhappiness that is true. But in the moment we realize we have the freedom to chose our next thought, our next feeling and next action, in that moment we have the potential to be really happy.