What is Mindfulness?

What does mindfulness mean to you?

Several weeks ago, I took a poll and the topic that got the most responses (and positive at that), was mindfulness. When I first started thinking about this, I assumed being mindful was just being aware of your current state of being. And while it is that to some degree... it’s also so much more. By definition, mindfulness can be several things.

According to Merriam-Webster it is:

1.) the quality or state of being mindful

2.) the practice of maintaining a nonjudgmental state of heightened or complete awareness of one's thoughts, emotions, or experiences on a moment-to-moment basis

also : such a state of awareness

Psychology Today breaks it down a little further:

1.) Mindfulness is letting go of taking things for granted.

2.) Mindfulness means to return to the present moment.

3.) Mindfulness is the self-regulation of attention with an attitude of curiosity, openness, and acceptance.

So while it includes being aware of the current moment, it also asks us to be open, non-judgmental, and a key takeaway for me, is the ability to maintain the awareness or to return to the present moment. It is so easy for me to be doing something with intention, just to be completely derailed in the blink of an eye. So maybe I set out to be mindful, but it lasts two minutes (or less) because I get distracted and move past my mindfulness and onto the next thing. Or worse, maybe I’m trying to multi-task while being mindful.... which I know is COMPLETELY contradictory. So while I’ve been mulling over all of this, I think a major part that I need to focus on in my journey to being more mindful is this:

Single tasking. 

Does that even make sense to you? I stumbled a bit when I saw the title “Single Task More” on a podcast I follow (Minimalist Moms Podcast). 

Wait, what? Single task? As in, only do one thing at a time? And try to do it more often? No way. We are a people who survive off multitasking. Some may even feel that they thrive off of multitasking. But after listening to the short, five-minute-mantra they shared, I was really intrigued, and even a little disheartened. 

In an age of go go go, constant connectivity with technology, and just being “busy,” I reflected a little on my life, and without much effort, realized I multitask. A lot. For example, while I was listening to that short podcast, I was also trying to look up something online, and about half way through, I realized I wasn’t listening very well to the podcast, and I also wasn’t retaining much of what I was reading online. So, I closed my browser, and set my phone down. I wanted to really hear what the host was saying about single tasking, and the (usually negative) impacts of multitasking. I returned to the present moment that I had chosen for myself, which was listening to the podcast, and self-regulated my attention to that experience. 

It isn’t easy to do. I can see how it will take practice. And discipline. And repetition. Lots and lots of repetition. I think the challenging thing with mindfulness, is that you can get sidetracked so easily, and it is hard to even realize you got sidetracked in the first place. So doing things with the intention of single tasking, should, in theory, help to bolster mindfulness. Which is what I’m going to focus on. Even a somewhat silly example, is watching a movie. Usually Matt and I will sit down and watch a movie on either Friday or Saturday night after the kids go to bed. I used to be on my phone for most of these movies. I was sort of paying attention, but not very closely, and also was just mindlessly scrolling. At the end of the two-ish hours, I probably couldn’t tell you what really happened in the movie, or what I was seeing/reading on my phone. So lately, I’ve been putting my phone aside, and just sitting to watch a movie. It’s so simple but also so glorious, because my mind can focus on what I’ve chosen to do. It isn’t being pulled in multiple directions all at the same time. 

And one more side note for today. 

I recently started doing short meditations. I’ve been struggling with somewhat overwhelming anxiety at times, and hope this will help center me. One of the meditations I was listening to talked about how, when you are present in the moment, you aren’t putting your mind in with the worries of the past or the future. Because, if we are being real, most of the worries we have aren’t originating from our current state of being. They usually stem from something that happened in the past that we continue to rehash, or something that may be on the horizon and we worry about how it will shake out. Therefore, being mindful of our experiences in a moment-to-moment basis can really help bring clarity and focus to our thoughts and mind. It is so easy to get distracted and swayed by things that happened (or may happen) outside the current moment, and then we spend time and energy worrying about those things that are not in the present. 

So, I’m going to continue doing these short meditations. I think the repetition and practice of bringing my mind back to the present moment will be beneficial long term. I’m also going to be aware of how much I’m trying to do all at once, and really focus on single tasking.  

So I’m curious, how do you practice mindfulness?