Gandhi once said to a group of his supporters “I need to set aside one hour a day to do meditation”. One of them said, “oh no, you can’t do that! You are too busy, Gandhi!” And so Gandhi said, “Well, then, I now need to set aside two hours a day to do meditation.”
The first step to practicing mindfulness should be to practice it as a meditation, with your eyes closed and free from visual distractions.
Many people wonder where they will find the time to sit quietly and practice meditation.
What they do not realize is that meditation is actually a positive time investment. 20 minutes of quiet meditation can get you hours of focused attention.
You will actually be able to do more in an 8 hour period with 20 minutes of quiet meditation, than forcing yourself to work 8 hours straight.
As you go through your usual busy day, you complete tasks that require thinking, attention and actions. These all slowly create ‘garbage’ in your mind that takes away your energy and ability to focus. The busier you are, the more garbage is built up in your mind. This garbage also prevents you from efficiently completing more tasks.
Mindfulness Meditation is like the garbage collector for your mind. It takes away the garbage so that your mind becomes fresh and your consciousness can function naturally. It can be as if your mind was a very messy room, impossible to walk into or do anything in and then its clear and organized again. Many CEOs and high achievers cite Mindfulness Meditation as one of the secrets behind their success.
If you have ever seen a very busy person who appears calm and composed, without even a hint of stress there’s a very good chance they are practicing meditation. If they have alot of practice with mindfulness, they might even be practicing it while going through their normal day.
Once you learn basic mindfulness through meditation, you can then, in addition to your daily meditation, take the mindfulness into your every day life. The way to practice mindfulness is to simply focus closely on all of your thoughts, sensations and actions without judgement.
You actually don’t need to meditate to do this. Once you are able to practice mindfulness through meditation you should attempt to be mindful all the time.
The garbage that builds up in your mind on a day to day basis is one thing mindfulness is very good at removing. But most likely you have garbage built up from previous weeks, months and years.
This article has been republished from AvatarAyakari
