Mindfulness - The Art of Living Every Moment Part 3
If you want to read part 1 of this series, please click here.
One of the most agreed and known definition in the world of Mindfulness Practitioner is: "to pay attention to the moment with definite intention (to be present) and, without any conjecture or prejudice."
'Paying attention to the present moment deliberately and non-judgmentally.'
अगर आप यह ब्लॉग हिंदी में पढ़ना चाहते हैं, तो यहाँ क्लिक करें ।
The first part of the interpretation - to pay attention to the moment with a specific intention (to be present)
After reading the description, you will probably say, what else I do besides focusing at the moment. If I don't, how will I be able to perform any action, like drive a car or answer emails, cook food, and other various activities I engage in daily?
If it were true, then ponder, when you left for the office, were you simply driving your car or thinking about the last night conversation while driving. If you take a public vehicle to commute to your office, during the journey do you just sit or listen to the songs. Do you read or deliberating upon something; while sipping your coffee do you enjoy every bit of the freshly brewed coffee or ponder over the to-do list of the day.
Mostly, such questions are posed to the participants of IBHNLP Workshops by me. In one such mindfulness-based neuro-linguistic programming workshop, upon asking a similar question, a participant narrated a funny episode of his life. He said, "While he was graduating, he dreamed of visiting Taj Mahal. He had heard about its glory and had seen it on the internet, but never experienced it in person. So he collected money for a year to accomplish his desire. Finally, I reached the Taj Mahal. Sitting in the garden, I soaked in its beauty for a few moments, and then took out the camera from my bag and began to click photos. For the next three hours, I kept capturing the Taj Mahal from various angles, experimenting with the camera." What he said next was hilarious. He stated, "While returning from the visit, he started to scroll down the clicked images. Suddenly he realised that he did not see Taj Mahal. He was simply engrossed in clicking its photographs. Probably hiring a photographer present there would be much beneficial. He would not only have got good photos clicked but actually enjoyed the exquisiteness of it."
How many times while strolling in the garden, instead of appreciating the nature, trees, plants, we keep thinking about some or the other thing. Think about the ratio of you being present in the moment and the times you keep wandering in your mental space. If you pay attention to the thoughts, you will realise that usually, we contemplate about the same thing, over and over again; whether it's today, yesterday or day before yesterday. The same notion keeps circling in your mind.
Hence we need to be conscious and determined to be present at the moment and break the vicious cycle of overthinking. We need to practice it and ingrain in our hearts. Human beings are a creature of habits. We have the habit of operating on auto-pilot mode. The second we take the route, we have to remind ourselves to be in the moment and make it a lifestyle. We need to destroy the habit of overindulging and meditate to live a life of Mindfulness. We might start wandering in the future but remind yourself to connect to the flow of the seconds. Be resolute. The definite intention is imperative because the old habit of thinking has been embedded within us for years, to break these roots, we have to establish a new pattern of deliberately coming into the present.
The second part of the interpretation - without any conjecture or bias.
Imagine that you want to launch your online clothing business. You need an investment of about fifty lakhs rupees. You have saved thirty lakhs to invest, and have sanctioned a loan for the rest of the money. You need to strategise and plan before making this massive investment to start a business. You have to deliberate upon many tasks, for example, creating a website, entourage, marketing strategies. You need to take care of all the forces affecting the business, the bigger picture and the minute details.
You have to anticipate the future and based on it chart an action plan for the present day. The better you are at analysing and judging the variables, the higher are your chances of succeeding in your business. In short, you have to seek the help of inference and the analytical power of the brain. The better the approach, the more comfortable it will be to climb the stairs of victory.
But in the course of life, our habit of making judgement takes the better of our behaviour. We start analysing every little thing even when not needed. And in this play of anticipation, we get stuck in our thoughts and suck the joy out of life.
For example, the tea you are given is cold. Having cold tea can also be fun in a way. But shall we enjoy it? Probably not. Most of the times we begin to think of the hot tea we drank last time. The trail proceeds to the variety of teas available in various restaurants, how terrible the cold tea tastes and so on. In this reasoning, we forget to enjoy the tea, cold or hot.
We are so habituated of the background commentary running in our mind that we are unable to relish a tea. Enjoying success seems farfetched. Therefore, to lead a happy life, it is important to not engage in any presumptions and premeditated conclusions. A large part of our lives can be lived without any preconceived notions or judgements. So why fret unnecessarily?!
Finally, let me narrate the description of Mindfulness once again.
"To pay attention to the moment with definite intention (to be present) and, without any conjecture or prejudice."
"Paying attention to the present moment deliberately and non-judgmentally."
Hope you enjoyed reading this blog! Do share it with your near & dear ones. Let’s meet at the next Blog. Till then…….
‘Enjoy Your Life & Live with Passion!’
(This blog is originally written in Hindi by the Master Trainer Mranal Gupta and later translated in English by Zeba Ali, an NLP Practitioner & a psychology professor.)
Mranal Gupta
Creator of MBNLP, Founder & CEO of IBHNLP
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Summary:
What is Mindfulness? Part - 3
Here, the NLP Master Trainer Mranal has explained the Mindfulness in simple words, with various examples. Being mindful is the key to live a happy & prosperous life. Mindfulness & Misery do not go hand in hand. We just need to take a pause & be in the present moment. NLP Training or NLP Coaching helps us to understand the mind mechanism easily with baby steps. Get trained in NLP, Hypnosis & Life Coaching for a better understanding of the human mind. Attending NLP Workshops & attending NLP Training opens many aspects of our behavioural patterns, thought patterns, emotions or the feeling. Now you can attend the best NLP Training programs organised by IBHNLP under the mentorship of the best NLP Master Trainer Mranal Gupta. You can attend NLP Training workshops near your city in Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Delhi or Ahmedabad.
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