What is mindfulness?
I like Jon Kabat-Zinn’s definition of mindfulness.
“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way;
On purpose,
in the present moment, and
nonjudgmentally.”
Kabat-Zinn, if you haven’t heard of him, is a famous teacher of mindfulness meditation and the founder of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.
First of all, mindfulness involves paying attention “on purpose”. Mindfulness involves a conscious direction of our awareness. We sometimes (me included) talk about “mindfulness” and “awareness” as if they were interchangeable terms, but that’s not a good habit to get into. I may be aware I’m irritable, but that wouldn’t mean I was being mindful of my irritability. In order to be mindful I have to be purposefully aware of myself, not just vaguely and habitually aware. Knowing that you are eating is not the same as eating mindfully.
Let’s take that example of eating and look at it a bit further. When we are purposefully aware of eating, we are consciously being aware of the process of eating. We’re deliberately noticing the sensations and our responses to those sensations. We’re noticing the mind wandering, and when it does wander we purposefully bring our attention back.
When we’re eating unmindfully we may in theory be aware of what we’re doing, but we’re probably thinking about a hundred and one other things at the same time, and we may also be watching TV, talking, or reading — or even all three! So a very small part of our awareness is absorbed with eating, and we may be only barely aware of the physical sensations and even less aware of our thoughts and emotions.
Because we’re only dimly aware of our thoughts, they wander in an unrestricted way. There’s no conscious attempt to bring our attention back to our eating. There’s no purposefulness.
This purposefulness is a very important part of mindfulness. Having the purpose of staying with our experience, whether that’s the breath, or a particular emotion, or something as simple as eating, means that we are actively shaping the mind.
Left to itself the mind wanders through all kinds of thoughts — including thoughts expressing anger, craving, depression, revenge, self-pity, etc. As we indulge in these kinds of thoughts we reinforce those emotions in our hearts and cause ourselves to suffer.
By purposefully directing our awareness away from such thoughts and towards some “anchor” we decrease their effect on our lives and we create instead a space of freedom where calmness and contentment can grow.
Comments
Comment from Jamie Tillery
Time: September 4, 2007, 12:36 pm
I was looking for a good site to describe mindfulness, I’m glad I found this one.
Comment from Sally
Time: September 10, 2008, 12:56 pm
ah, now i understand why my support worker is so keen for me to fathom this technique to combat my eating disorder! thanks!
Pingback from What is mindfulness? « Advice For Life
Time: December 11, 2008, 4:44 pm
[...] Left to itself the mind wanders through all kinds of thoughts — including thoughts expressing anger, craving, depression, revenge, self-pity, etc. As we indulge in these kinds of thoughts we reinforce those emotions in our hearts and cause ourselves to suffer. By purposefully directing our awareness away from such thoughts and towards some “anchor” we decrease their effect on our lives and we create instead a space of freedom where calmness and contentment can grow. http://www.wildmind.org/applied/daily-life/what-is-mindfulness [...]
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Time: January 3, 2009, 5:14 pm
[...] think mindfulness is going to take a lot of re-training for my brain. Author Jon Kabat-Zinn says “Mindfulness [...]
Comment from ruth
Time: April 12, 2009, 2:32 pm
Hello Bodhipaksa
Greetings from London and thank you for an inspiring site!
This might sound an odd question, but I wondered whether you might have any suggestions as to how to deal with what the Germans call an ‘ear-worm’, that is a catchy tune that you can’t get out of your head – worst of all, an advertising jingle? For me, it’s much harder to shift focus away from this ‘inner tune’ than it is from words – perhaps because there’s a tune to fit most rhythmic activities, from walking to counting breaths…
Thank you again, all best, Ruth
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: April 13, 2009, 11:54 am
I find the best way to deal with a tune that’s stuck in my head is to listen very carefully to what’s going on around me. I find it’s impossible to be 100% attentive to external sounds and also to generate internal sounds. When the music reappears, this acts as a mindfulness bell, reminding me that I’m no longer paying attention to the sounds around me.
Sometimes as well, however, there’s some message encoded in the lyrics or title of the song. When this happens it’s as if I’m trying to tell myself something. So sometimes it’s worth reflecting on the content.
Comment from ruth
Time: April 13, 2009, 4:51 pm
thank you for your speedy reply – I look forward to experimenting with your suggestions! best wishes, Ruth
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Time: November 28, 2009, 10:14 pm
[...] rational in your parenting and emotional stability. Here are more details on mindfulness, please use this link to get the details on it. You also can glean blessings from the Lord, but only if you seek Him for [...]
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Time: December 12, 2009, 12:51 am
[...] rational in your parenting and emotional stability. Here are more details on mindfulness, please use this link to get the details on it. You also can glean blessings from the Lord, but only if you seek Him for [...]
Comment from Rodger
Time: January 12, 2010, 6:18 pm
I was injured 6 years ago in a logging accident through my rehabilitation process I have discovered mindfulness. As mindfulness is still new to me I have however discovered how to pace my daily activities to aleviate much of my pain with the help of breathing and time management . I for some reason have an ability to minimize my pain in virtually seconds by being mindfull with the help of breathing. If I am able to kill my pain in seconds with my breath is there not a way to learn how to heal sickness or some injuries with mindfulness and breath with the help of the brain as an instrumental tool in this process.
Comment from Sunada
Time: January 13, 2010, 6:34 pm
Hi Rodger,
That’s great that you’ve been able to recover so well. I do agree with your point that mindfulness is a great help in the healing process, but only up to a point. Let’s be realistic about what the true powers of mindfulness are. When we are mindful of our body, we become more attuned to the body’s natural processes, and learn how to support them better. Yes, this can definitely help us to heal more quickly. And it’s great that the medical field is starting to incorporate more of this type of approach.
But mindfulness in itself has no magical qualities that will allow us to heal sickness or injury beyond what nature itself could do. We’re simply becoming more attuned to nature, and helping it along as its steward. In other words, we can’t make nature bend to the wishes of our egos. We can’t speed up the healing process to meet our desired timetable, or make all pain go away, for example.
So to the extent that we learn to accept and understand the greater powers of nature, and live by its rules, mindfulness is definitely a great helper in the healing process. But I hope you see that we can’t bend the laws of nature beyond their original design!
Best wishes,
Sunada Takagi
http://www.mindfulpurpose.com
Comment from Rodger
Time: January 14, 2010, 12:02 am
Thank you for your response. As I am still learning about mindfulness hopefully this makes sense and comes out right. It makes sense that mindfulness has no magical qualities to heal but does help. It is I who through the understanding of nature and life choose the paths I follow if I have that right. Each path consists of hundreds if not thousands of steps, each step I choose to take is a little part of this wonderful thing called life that surrounds me.
Comment from Anabel
Time: April 18, 2010, 9:55 pm
How can “minfulness” help a person with an eating disorder?
I appreciate your advice and your insight.
…das~
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: April 19, 2010, 9:46 am
Hi Anabel,
I’ve never studied the application of mindfulness to eating disorders, although I know that work has been done in that field.
But in principle, with mindfulness, we can become more aware of the emotional triggers and the thought-patterns that lead to the disordered eating. We can begin to catch ourselves earlier and earlier, until we can intervene before the pattern leading to disordered eating gets to the point of no return. Mindfulness brings us more freedom, so that we’re less at the mercy of automatic habits.
This works with other unhelpful habits like anger flare-ups. For example, let’s say that in certain situations we feel hurt, and explosive anger results. Mindfulness allows us to see that the hurt is there, and to just be with it. We become able to let the hurt pass through (these things are always impermanent) until we feel at peace. The anger, which is just a habitual (and unhelpful) way of trying to protect ourselves from hurt, just doesn’t happen.
Disordered eating is a similar pattern, starting with a stimulus that leads to an uncomfortable feeling, that we then attempt to deal with with food. And mindfulness works in the same way as in the example above, allowing us to intervene early on and prevent the habit from manifesting.
You might want to check out The Center for Mindful Eating: http://www.tcme.org/ and see what resources they have available.
All the best,
Bodhipaksa
Comment from Anabel
Time: April 20, 2010, 8:13 pm
Hi Bodhipaksa,
I can see how mindfulness can help with many automatic habits, thanks to your simple yet profound response. I’m very interested in this topic, not only for myself but to aid others including children achieve freedom from destructive actions.
I will also look into the link you provided.
Divine blessings,
…das~
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: April 21, 2010, 11:18 am
Hi Anabel,
You might also want to check out the following news story on how mindfulness can be used to treat addictions: http://www.wildmind.org/blogs/news/researchers-see-promise-in-treating-addictive-behaviors-with-mindfulness-meditation
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Time: July 11, 2010, 12:14 am
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Time: July 24, 2010, 2:38 pm
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Time: July 30, 2010, 12:12 pm
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Time: September 11, 2010, 7:25 am
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Comment from ailanthus
Time: January 4, 2011, 4:08 pm
How would you distinguish mindfulness from reflection, and reflection from ordinary thinking?
I ask because I’m sometimes confused by ambiguous terminology. For example, “meditation” can mean one-pointed concentration on, say, the breath; however, I also read about “meditation” on a concept like impermanence or an emotion like fear. That in turn seems distinct both from mindfulness, which is closer to a nonclinging, nondirective awareness of sensation, thought, and feeling; from reflection, which actively pursues a line of inquiry; and from ordinary thinking, which is more haphazard and associative. What I’m calling “reflection” seems somewhat like the second usage of “meditation” above, a sort of middle state that partakes of both concentration and open awareness.
So for instance, would it be accurate to interpret advice to “meditate on” impermanence—with or without study aids like a real or imaginary corpse—as a suggestion to reflect on it? And is that a practice separate from, if complementary to, one-pointed concentration?
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: January 11, 2011, 10:30 pm
The terminology often is ambiguous, and it may be used in different ways by different traditions or teachers.
To take the first three terms you flag: mindfulness, reflection, and ordinary thinking:
Ordinary thinking is usually done without mindfulness, by which I mean without an awareness, during the act of thinking, that we are thinking, and without an awareness, again during the act of thinking, of whether the thinking we are doing is helpful/unhelpful, purposeful/distracting, kindly/unkind, etc.
I’ve already incidentally described mindfulness: a kind of in-the-moment watchfulness and evaluation. Mindfulness can be applied in different ways. We can choose to be mindful of one particular thing (our thoughts, or a particular physical sensation, for example) or we can choose to have more of an open focus, being aware of a broad range of sensations without necessarily paying particular attention to any one of them. It’s like a flashlight that can either be set to a narrow or a diffuse beam. These two different approaches lead, in my experience, to different kinds of meditative experiences, with one-pointed concentration leading to the four jhanas, and open-focus attention leading to the non-dual realm of the ayatanas (often, and mistakenly, in my opinion, called the “formless jhanas”).
Reflection I’d describe as “mindful thinking,” where we’re thinking as a conscious act. We may be reading, or reflecting on our experience, or guiding ourselves through a traditional reflection such as the six elements. Mindfulness is present, but there’s also directedness, in the sense that there is a purpose to the thinking and we are attempting to stay on the track of that purpose while reflecting.
“Meditation” is a very broad term. Some practices lend themselves to an open-focus approach (one could hardly do walking meditation in a state of complete one-pointedness) while others lend themselves more to one-pointedness. I think of the two approaches as being complementary.
Advice to “meditate on impermanence” I’d have to take as a suggestion to reflect on it in the kinds of ways you suggest, otherwise the instruction would be something like “notice impermanence” (noticing wouldn’t involve reflecting — just noting that our experiences are changing). Again, I think both approaches are complementary.
I hope this is helpful.
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Time: February 4, 2011, 11:17 pm
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Comment from Melolo
Time: July 27, 2011, 12:56 am
How do you be mindful without being caught in the attempt to be mindful? For example, if you freeze up or get anxious, because you are taking it very seriously?
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: July 27, 2011, 10:31 pm
Hi, Melolo.
That’s going to happen sometimes, especially early on. There can be “instant supression” and everything becomes kind of wooden. It’s something that get worked through with practice, like with anything else. You know when you’re first learning to drive? Everything is clunky, and you keep freezing and getting flustered? And you keep practicing and eventually your driving becomes flawless and effortless? It’s like that with practicing mindfulness as well.
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