What mindfulness isn’t

Mindfulness has been hugely popular for some time now but it has a long history before it was researched and applied to mental health.

I often hear from my clients:

“i’ve tried mindfulness”

“i cant do it”

“i cant empty my mind”

“i just get distracted”

What I want you to know is that mindfulness is not about achieving anything. It is not about clearing your mind, or not thinking. You don’t have to be sitting cross legged or even be still.

Mindfulness is about bringing our attention or awareness to the present moment without judgment. It is simply about noticing and not judging what we notice - thats all!

We can notice things outside of ourselves using our senses, like our neighbours dog is barking, or the smell of toast, or the warmth of a cup of tea.

We can notice things inside ourselves like that our thoughts are racing, or we are feeling frustrated, or the feeling of strength in our legs when walking up one of Wellingtons hills!

We can notice we are very distracted today (and not beat ourselves up for it) and that IS mindfulness!

Noticing and not judging (i.e. “that annoying dog!” or “why cant i stop worrying?!”) allows us some space to step back from the experience, and a pause before we respond.

For parents, Shirley Pastiroff’s book is a great resource applying mindfulness to parenting.

Netflix has a new series by Headspace which is an easy watch introduction to mindfulness based meditation, see trailer below.