![]() ![]() Through this definition Jon shows us that there are three specific ways in which our attention ‘shifts gears’ when we practice mindfulness.įirstly our attention is held… 1. I like this definition because it allows us to see exactly what the components of mindfulness are. Mindfulness also involves non-judgment, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings with the attitude of an impartial witness - without believing them or taking them personally. We practice mindfulness by maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations and the surrounding environment. It means waking up out of autopilot and ‘taking the steering wheel’ of our attention again. Mindfulness is the opposite of mind lessness. Research shows, in fact, that the more our minds wander, the less happy we are (1). We also become vulnerable to anxiety, stress, depression and reactivity. On autopilot we tend to get lost in ‘doing’ so we find ourselves constantly striving and struggling and ‘getting stuff done’ instead of really living. ![]() Living this way we often fail to notice the beauty of life, fail to hear what our bodies are telling us and we all too often become stuck in mechanical conditioned ways of thinking and living that may be harmful to ourselves or others. In this busy, hyper connected world we live in it’s all too easy to lose ourselves in autopilot for much of the day….every day. Some teachers talk about autopilot as being a dreamlike state because in that mode we’re simply not fully ‘there’ in that moment. When we slip into autopilot (and research shows that the average person is in autopilot 47% of the time (1)) our attention is absorbed in our wandering minds and we are not really ‘present’ in our own lives. These are some common examples of ‘mind lessness’ – A state we also often refer to as being on ‘autopilot.’ Have you ever driven your car somewhere and arrived at your destination only to realise you remember nothing about your journey? Or started eating a packet of chips and then suddenly noticed all you had left in your hands was an empty packet? Most of us have! ![]()
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