What is Mindfulness

Mindfulness meditation is moment to moment awareness. It is being fully awake. It involves being here for the moments of our lives, without striving or judging.

You have felt it. Let’s explore one of those times now. Remember doing something you really, really enjoyed. . . . . . . . Really. Stop reading this and close your eyes and take a few moments to remember that time right now. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . How did you feel as you recalled it? Did you notice there was little room left for distracting thoughts or feelings? Bringing our fullness of attention into anything is mindfulness. You step fully into the moment. There is a sense of completeness, of enough-ness. These are the moments of our lives when we feel most at home.

Mindfulness involves a formal practice and an informal practice. In formal practice we take time for sitting meditation or mindful movement practices like walking meditation or yoga or chi gong. Informal practice is a way of life in which we meditate as we do what we do. It involves being present IN the moments of our lives. As one Los Vegas casino warned, "YOU MUST BE PRESENT TO WIN". That's it! You must be present to love, or experience peace, or joy, or contentment. When you are here you can have the experience of your life. Mindfulness involves being in each moment as it is without judgment or striving and having a kind of releasement towards things. It's a relaxed state of awareness that observes both your inner world of thoughts, feelings and sensations, and the outer world of constantly changing phenomena without trying to control anything.