Hey guys, it’s Penny! I’m here with another post for the ‘’Mindful’’ series on my blog.
Recently, I’ve been trying to implement these 7 attitudes of mindfulness into my daily life and have noticed that they have been very helpful to keep me grounded. That’s why I wanted to write a post about it.
This approach was mentioned by the founder of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program, Jon Kabat-Zinn, in his book Full Catastrophe Living. These usually try to be implemented during the 8-week course, as we are slowly getting introduced to what mindfulness is. These are seeds that you plant, and when you water them regularly, you can see the change in your life.
The first one is the beginner’s mind. Just like the name implies, it’s changing our perspective on how we look at ordinary things in life. Just like how a child learns about the world around him, you can try to do this in your daily life as well. I remember my mindfulness teacher giving an amazing example about this. Suppose you are finding your relationship a bit boring. When you look at it from a beginner’s perspective, you can definitely alter your perception and notice things you haven’t considered about your significant other.
Having a beginner’s mind is also beneficial for our brain. When we live in automatic mode, we don’t notice the simple, beautiful things around us.
The second one is patience. This one helped me massively during the 8-week MBSR course. I was impatient about the course, and I thought I was not meditating correctly. I realized that this resulted because I was lacking compassion and trust in myself. I believe that when we have self-compassion, we will be more patient with ourselves. Having patience is the key element in developing a more neutral approach to life.
The third one is acceptance. This one is very tricky, since I’m not good at accepting some things in life and trying to change them, knowing that I will fail. However, with this approach and the more I choose mindfulness in my life, I realize that this is possible.
The fourth one is non-judging. Are we aware of the judgments we create in our heads daily about other people or events? The more we have ideas of what is wrong and what is right in our heads, the more we become judgmental. In mindfulness approaches, we practice non-judgement and simply acknowledge that the idea or feeling we might have had was simply there in our minds.
The fifth one is non-striving. In life, we often find ourselves striving to be perfect all the time. However, this is an unrealistic goal. Human nature is dual, and we can never be perfect even if we strive for it. Embrace your current self and realize that you do not change to become someone you are not supposed to be. Who you are is enough.
The sixth one is trust. We started to hear this recently: that we need to ‘trust the process’ and ‘let things flow.’ I know that it is easier said than done; however, we tend to cling onto things and try to intervene with how they unfold. Sometimes, it’s good to learn to trust the process.
The last one is letting go. Non-attachment is crucial in mindfulness approaches, as while we are learning how to be mindful, we spend a great deal of time learning how to let things go. In meditation, for example, whenever a thought or a feeling comes, we simply let go of the idea that it should be serving us well or badly. Everything is neutral, and the best way to deal with intrusive thoughts is to simply let them be free and let them go.
Were you familiar with these concepts? What did this post make you think, and which one are you planning to apply to your life?
Until the next post, lovelies!
Penny x
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