I have given a lot of thought lately to the practice of mindfulness and how it impacts on the practitioner. In learning to slow one's breath and focus on the present moment, you can come into the very truth of who you are.
We tend to race through life in a bit of a haze, jumping from one task to another, from one experience to the next. Few people take even 10 minutes a day to calm their mind and rest. Most people simply don't have "time" for that.
Why practice something if you cannot clearly see the benefit? Perhaps many people simply do not know what the benefits are...if people really understood the value of mindfulness and what the outcome of those 10 minutes could bring...I think more people would "make" time for it. What if I told you that in mindfulness you would find a cure for your pain and suffering? What if I told you that in mindfulness you could heal the brokenness of your past? What if I told you that in mindfulness you could find understanding and compassion for those who have caused you harm? If even one of those things could be true for you, I think it would be worth your time...
I love to listen to talks and read books about the power of stillness and the benefit of meditation and mindfulness. (Particularly the scientific evidence of how meditation can actually change the brain - absolutely fascinating!) In knowing the benefits, it inspires me to dedicate more time to the practice.
One of the recent talks that I listened to from Thich Nhat Hanh was about how mindfulness allows the space and time for us to listen to and understand our own pain. When we become aware of our pain and suffering and understand it, we nurture compassion, and it is through this compassion that we suffer less. As we learn to nurture ourselves we will also then learn to nurture others.
He uses a beautiful metaphor of mindfulness being like a mother holding and comforting her crying child. When the child cries, the mother tenderly embraces the child not knowing what is wrong she just holds the child in an embrace which offers the child safety and comfort. In time the mother will seek to understand why the child is crying and will look at how to stop the suffering. This is a beautiful metaphor where the practice of mindfulness is like the mother; mindfulness holds the "crying child" which is our pain and suffering. In mindfulness you simply sit with your pain and acknowledge it through your awareness. In time, as you sit with that pain your tender breathing will calm the pain. Once the pain and suffering have clammed down a little, you can then explore what caused this pain/suffering and you can find understanding which helps the "child to stop crying". Over time once you have learned to sit with your own pain and suffering you can then help others learn to sit with their pain and suffering.
Often times when we listen to our pain compassionately and start to discover where our pain came from, we are drawn to the person or circumstance which caused the pain in the first place. Through our mindfulness practice we learn to look through compassionate eyes and we may view the person who has caused us that pain in a very different light. It is possible through this compassion to offer them forgiveness because we can now see that it was because THEY suffered that they caused us pain.
One of the most powerful things about pain and suffering is that when you suffer it affects the people around you - whether you want it to or not!! So by calming your own pain and understanding your own suffering you will as a result cause those around you to suffer less. One of the biggest lessons I have learned in life is that compassion can heal. A lot of the physical disease that we experience and the tension and the mental struggles that people face are a result of holding onto past suffering and pain. I wonder what wellness would come if more people started practicing mindfulness regularly and started forgiving those in their past who have harmed them?
So, my challenge to you is this: See if there are ways you could incorporate more mindfulness practice into your daily routine.
"Let this present moment bring healing to you today" ~ Namaste
