Mindfulness meditation is trending in the health and wellness community. Many see it as the answer to preventing mental chaos. But meditation means different things to different people — a tool, a lifestyle, a religious path. At its root, mindfulness gathers, brings together, and focuses the resources of attention on the present moment. Along with gentleness and care, it broadens this window to reduce our reactivity to life events.
As proficiency increases, a major focus of mindfulness meditation becomes our uncontrolled monkey mind, with its helter-skelter patterns, uncertainty, randomness, and emotional pain. Through persistent application, we allow the mental chaos to be and develop a curiosity about it. At some point, awareness itself becomes the focus of the practice. Here, we discover our innate creative nature and experience an inner calmness we had not expected.
Most of us meditate to relax, for health reasons, or to explore spiritual matters. How we meditate varies — from sitting, lying down, walking, chanting, dancing, to carrying on with our daily life. Each mode and approach offer valuable insights. But often, the practices can appear unnecessarily complex and confusing. In fact, there may only be three essential actions needed to practice mindfulness meditation, and everything else is secondary:
1. Know yourself by being in the present moment and asking: “Who Am I?”
2. Stop identifying with your mind and body and do not get lost in your “story.”
3. Trust and surrender to the love, intelligence, and sense of sacredness that arises.
Ten Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation
Regardless of our particular method and technique, consistently practicing these essentials as an act of love towards ourselves and others will help us experience the following unique qualities:
1. Stillness.
More than the absence of movement, stillness is an attitude that “life is perfect as it is” or, more simply, that “life is what it is.” Through mindfulness meditation, we learn to accept the reality in front of us — one outcome out of a set of infinite possibilities, given the history and circumstances of each moment — and which we do not need to change.
2. Creative No-Mind.
No-mind is the essence of what I call creative living. The term comes from mushin, a Buddhist martial arts term that translates literally as a mind that is not fixed or occupied by thought or emotion and is open to everything. Such an unencumbered mind lacks self-centeredness and flows unimpeded from moment to moment. It is associated with the term “beginner’s mind” and “compassionate mind.”
3. Flow.
The psychologist Mihály Csikszentmihályi described flow as when “The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.” Flow overlaps with the idea of mushin or “no-mind.” It is the sense of being completely immersed and concentrated on an activity or task, and in which we lose the sense of space and time.
4. Clarity.
Clarity refers to a wholistic way of viewing life, with a clearness of perception, thinking, and intentionality. This is seeing ourselves, the context of our life, our goals and intentions as interconnected. It is opening our mind to the Infinite and recognizing that like a wave on the ocean, we express that ultimate reality.
5. Situational Awareness.
Situational awareness means awareness of thoughts, actions, and intentions at that moment. Or, as has described it, “a feel for the unique contours of the situation.” It is an intuitive awareness of when to follow and when to break the rules. A feel for the flow of events, a special sensitivity, not necessarily conscious, for how fast to move and what decisions to take that will prevent a bad outcome. It is a sensitivity that flows from experience, historical knowledge, humility in the face of uncertainty, and having led a reflective and interesting life.
6. Joy.
More than an emotion of delight, joy is a state of being and cherishing of the moment; feeling fulfilled, lacking nothing, and being content. A feeling that pervades our entire body, mind, and spirit.
7. Empathy, Love, and Compassion.
These are qualities of being that reflect our sense of connection and responsibility for others. We feel what others feel and moved to help relieve their suffering. These are motivators and bonds that form a true intimacy with others.
8. Openness, Curiosity, and Creativity.
As fears subside in our mindfulness practice, the innate nature of our mind comes to the foreground: an inner and outer boundless field of awareness that is open, active, adaptable, dynamic, inquisitive, and creative.
9. Trust and Lack of Fear.
With greater openness, curiosity, and creativity, the intuition of something greater than ourselves increases, and trust in its benevolence grows. It is a non-conceptual awareness that carries a sense of vitality, intelligence, and love.
10. Wisdom.
The wisdom of our open and creative mind, trusting life and the universe, is available to respond intuitively, spontaneously, and appropriately in any circumstance, without the need to conceptualize and rationalize. It transcends intellectual/conceptual knowing.
Living Creatively
As a psychological and health improvement practice, the consistent routine of mindfulness meditation reduces stress, anxiety, memory loss, negative emotions, and pain. It improves heart rate, concentration, sleep, emotional health, patience, tolerance, imagination, and creativity.
Additionally, as the practice assumes a more spiritual orientation and lifestyle, mindfulness becomes especially intricate and interesting. Many aspire to reconcile with an initial unity we might have experienced as children, taking many different paths involving concepts of God, Buddha-nature, Life, the Source, enlightenment, kensho, satori, wakefulness, realization, and more. There are many methods and techniques to help us get there.
Yet, just like the act of driving remains the same regardless of the vehicle we use, and despite the hundreds of variations and styles of automobiles associated with driving, mindfulness meditation remains straightforward. At its most basic, it concerns the rediscovery of a genuine self and the mental and spiritual health to live creatively.
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Jaime A. Pineda, PhD is Professor of Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, and the author of many widely cited papers in animal and human cognitive and systems neuroscience, as well as two books of poetry on mind-brain relationships with an emphasis on spirituality, mysticism, environmentalism, and social activism. Learn more at the author’s website. His new book is Controlling Mental Chaos: Harnessing the Power of the Creative Mind.
