What Is Mindfulness?
Keep your attention focused on the work, be alert and ready to handle ably and intelligently any situation that may arise - this is mindfulness.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Mindfulness is really en vogue right now. People buy books about it, go to mindfulness courses and retreats, and there’s almost no issue of any lifestyle magazine that doesn’t include an article about it.
Almost everybody agrees that it’s worthwhile to concentrate on the here and now to live in a less shattered way and be more focused. Perhaps we succeed being fully present during a course or while reading about it, but then… Then our everyday lives with all their routines take over again. It takes a real effort
to bring mindfulness into our everyday lives, and what I find works best is to stop and make a pause before any new action.
Let’s say you are writing an email and then you need to make phone call. When you’ve finished the first task you close your eyes for a second, take a deep breath, relax your whole body and smile. Then you dial the number, fully aware of whom you will talk to and what you need to discuss.
I find Thich Nhat Hanh’s definition very good, but what it doesn’t include is “without being elsewhere in your thoughts”. It’s probably obvious to a Buddhist monk, but not to us ;-)
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