Mindfulness: Accepting the Present Moment

I recently attended the two-day workshop “The Power of Mindfulness: Mindfulness Inside and Outside the Therapy Hour” by Ronald Siegel, Psy.D. I walked into this workshop knowing that mindfulness is the practice of present-moment awareness; however, I walked out of this workshop with a greater appreciation of the importance of accepting whatever it is that we find when we focus our awareness in this way

Mindfulness is practiced by focusing one’s attention in an open-hearted and non-judgmental way. Beginners (and non-beginners alike) will often focus attention on the breath—on the expansion and contraction of the belly, on the sensation of air moving in and out at the tip of the nose, or even on the subtle sounds that air makes as it moves up and down our throats. The most important and powerful part of practicing mindfulness is gently nudging our attention back to the breath when we find that it has wandered (and it will wander a lot!). Students of meditation will often worry that they “aren’t doing it right” if they notice a wandering mind. But it is through the very act of catching our wandering minds and inviting our attention back to the breath that mindfulness skills are most powerfully developed.

Practicing mindfulness can be done formally through sitting or walking meditations, or informally, as we move around through the day. A great place to practice informal mindfulness is when we are completing the basic “chores” of life, such as laundry, cooking, cleaning or taking a shower. These are the simple activities that we typically try to “rush through” as our minds become distracted by what’s happened in the past, or what might happen in the future. We can practice mindfulness when, even for a few moments, we bring awareness to these simple activities; when we notice how our bodies feel, when we notice where our thoughts tend to go, and when we notice the automatic reactions we tend to have toward ourselves when we notice these things! When we can practice noticing our judgmental thoughts without judgment (“Interesting, I just had the thought I’m no good at this…”), we are really on our way to deepening these skills.

After participating in Dr. Siegel’s workshop, it was clear to me how important it is to make mindfulness more of a priority in both my personal life as well as in my clinical practice. I came away from this workshop thinking about all of the roles that I play in my life including granddaughter, daughter, sister, wife, mother, friend, and psychologist as well as all of the activities that I participate in on a daily basis. It is often difficult to focus on each of these parts of my life independently; however, practicing mindfulness gives me a chance to do that, if only for a few moments.