THE MINDFULNESS STRATEGY
THOUGHTS DO NOT JUST COME AND GO THEY LEAVE IMPRINTS
Thoughts are not like ripples on the surface of a pond or waves on the surface of the ocean but they go deep and often take root.
When we don’t practice mindfulness, what happens is as we begin to accumulate different types of experiences and these experiences become ossified or classified then there is not much movement in the mind. Just like a body that is not exercised, the suppleness of the mind is gone, the resilience of the mind is gone.
The mind becomes very set in its ways. It operates in a very habitual manner.
Many of the mental habits that we have are self destructive. They invite frustration, disappointment and things of that kind. It puts us in a situation where we just dwell on past failures, past experiences of trauma, all the bad things that happened to us earlier on in life. We think about the future only with a sense of anxiety, fear and worry thinking that things will get worse or something bad is going to happen - worrying about oneself in terms of one’s physical health or one’s mental soundness, worrying about the world at large, what might be in store for the world.
From the Buddhist point of view, mindfulness practice helps us because we can see that nothing is fixed. If nothing is fixed then we have the capacity to direct our mind in a totally different direction if
we so choose. That means we are not condemned to repeat the same stuff.
We are not condemned to have the same old thoughts, same old emotions, same old feelings and so on.
#mindfulness #wellbeing #corrections #compassion #bullying #anxiety #leadership