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Being Mindful

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Being Mindful
Being Mindful
“Mindfulness described as being in the present moment” (Wood, 2010). The present moment holds a potentially infinite number of things going on both inside the mind and outside the mind. A person is not completely lost in an activity, nor are they completely lost in thought, whether a person is eating a meal, or playing a musical instrument, they are aware of what they are doing. If a person gets all of the worries and regrets out of their mind, it is easier to focus on the things that are happening in the present.

A person simply observes whatever is happening, without taking sides or forming attachments to any one single mindset. They are mindful when the mind is open to new thoughts, new ideas, new possibilities, and new ways of thinking. Being mindful contributes to greater effectiveness in the here and now, not the there and then. A person’s mind is not automatically blinded by judgment, evaluation or any one rigid way of thinking, it is the person themselves that create this mind set.

In a person’s day-to-day experiences, the conscious mind is always struggling to keep up with the endless flow of changes in the external world. To make the job easier, the mind creates a series of generalizations and assumptions about the world, so we as people believe that we do not have to do as much thinking. Whatever is going on, whether we are working, running, or enjoying a meal, we should always be aware of what is going on around us. Someone should not be overburdened with worries or even dreams of the future, and should not be full of regret or longing for any part of the past, just enjoy experiencing the present moment to its fullest. These three things are important while being mindfulness: Observing with all our senses, one-mindfully (think of one thing at a time), notice when the mind goes somewhere other than the present, and when it does that’s when one needs to then pull it back.

University of Rochester researchers report that



References: Rochester (2010) Retreivied October 2010 From http://www.rochester.edu/news Wood, J. T. (2010). Interpersonal Communication. Wadsworth Cengage Publishing.

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