Life, Mindfulness, and The Pursuit of Happiness

Mindfulness; a mental state achieved by focusing ones awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting ones feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique. In my research over mindfulness I was able to contribute to the learning community a lot of different information on this topic. When people think about meditation they most likely think of monks or yoga but there are so many other options to practice mindfulness. I was able to speak on the different practices that are available to anybody and everybody. Yoga is not the only answer. Practicing mindfulness could be as simple as taking time by yourself in your room just to clean your thoughts. While practicing mindfulness you practice putting every thought somewhere else besides in your present mind. 

My major take away was the benefits of mindfulness. Before we began digging into the meaning of true mindfulness, I thought the only benefit was for yourself to feel better. I learned that being here, now can create happiness. Practicing mindfulness can improve your personal social relations with other people. Other people can consist of friends, family, and even strangers. Building relationships is a large part of life and when it comes down to it, the relationships that each person creates increases their personal happiness. Another benefit is you can achieve a greater sense of clarity in values throughout life and it also makes you focus on on the longer term things in life which is an important component to focus on. It’s crazy that these things all come from one simple practice. There are no bad aspects to mindfulness. 

If we were to add the aspect into everyones daily lives, we wouldn’t face near as much of the problems we face today. Wicked problems have been created because we weren’t mindful. I know that there is no going back now. But we are in a place on earth that is full of discomfort and sadness. I wouldn’t say thats all that we endure here because thats not true but we are in a dying state because our lack of mindfulness. We can improve our ways if we are more mindful of the earth that we stand on. We could add years to our lives and lessen anxiety that has become a huge problem nowadays. 

Before we even began speaking about this topic I practiced yoga to handle my anxiety. Although there are simpler ways to practice mindfulness, yoga works best for me. I find that I have a lot of trouble shutting my mind down if I am just sitting with my thoughts. In yoga I am able to focus on my physical body and the way it is stretching and moving rather than the problems in my life at the time. Yoga makes me feel fuller. I find myself having more successful days when I start my day by practicing it. I feel happier with my life and my current situations are lessened in my head. I recommend practicing mindfulness to anyone who is even thinking about trying it.