Mindfulness

Mindfulness is not meditation.

I believe a lot of people think mindfulness is meditation so they don’t have to do it. They think to themselves that it’s to mystical or woo-woo, they don’t associate themselves with those things, so now they don’t have to practice mindfulness.

I know some people get embarrassed talking about mindfulness, so they build up their defenses. They think about all the “bad” stereotypes they can attach to mindfulness to help justify their embarrassment.

Yes, you may have heard of mindfulness meditation, but that’s a form of meditation using and boosting mindfulness.

Mindfulness is not meditation but a powerful cognitive tool used for life, learning, and leadership.

You have been mindful before

You practice mindfulness everyday, but you probably don’t even know it.

When you learn something you’re practicing mindfulness. When you’re in a flow state you’re being mindful. When you scream “Oh, I love this song” on a summer road trip you have mindfulness.

Notice you weren’t sitting cross-legged, hands up, and humming. You weren’t on a mountain top in a robe. You weren’t being led by an instructor.

First, stop the stereotyping. Second, notice you were just going about life.

So, what is mindfulness

Mindfulness is the ability to be fully present and aware of where you are and what you're doing, while not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what's going on.

Mindfulness is the easiest and simplest way to improve your attentional focus. This can be done with anything at anytime - and should be.

Work to be mindful of all your actions throughout the day. Through mindfulness you can audit your thoughts and activities and remove those not serving you and others. Here is how to begin and grow your mindfulness:

Step 1: Simple everyday activities. Practice with your morning coffee. Focus on the taste, how is the temperature, what about the texture of the mug, and what emotions are you feeling. This sounds crazy, it’s just coffee, but you won’t get better insulting the practice. (And yes, you will definitely transition to better tasting coffee very quickly.) Don’t like coffee? Try this step when you eat a meal or brush your teeth.

Step 2: Complex activities. Once you’ve mastered simple everyday activities, move on to more complex ones. For example, a lunchtime walk. As you walk focus on how you feel, the weather, how comfy are your shoes, is the sidewalk smooth or bumpy. Be mindful of as much within you and around you as you can. Remember you’re practicing, so take it slow over time while adding more stimuli as you progress.

Step 3: Interpersonal activities. Ready to graduate to the next level, be mindful of those around you. What are people doing, how are they acting, what are they feeling? How do you know, what emotions are they expressing? As you move into this step, work to get feedback reassuring yourself you understood the situations correctly.

Step 3 is a big step in your mindfulness journey, but I bet you can realize how impactful this will be for your leadership or management career and for your relationships with loved ones and friends. Using mindfulness with those you care about will show them that you do actually care.

Don’t use stereotypes or incorrect definitions to brush off mindfulness. You’re missing out on a powerful cognitive tool for your life, learning, and leadership.

Mindfulness is not just a foundational skill for your leadership toolbox. It is the keystone of the foundational tools.

(Mindfulness is a prime subcategory of Attentional Focus, and for more on that topic, check out that article here.)