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Mindfulness is the practice of being present and nonjudgmental, commonly used in meditation and yoga. It can reduce stress, manage pain, and increase personal awareness. Practicing mindfulness in everyday life can help eliminate biases and negative associations, leading to a happier and calmer state of mind.
Mindfulness is the practice of living in the present moment and experiencing things without judgment. It is part of the Noble Eightfold Path that Buddhists practice to work towards enlightenment and is an integral part of hatha yoga practice. Mindfulness has both a mental and physical component and emphasizes a mind-body connection. In addition to its spiritual associations, mindfulness can be a useful practice for those looking to reduce stress, manage pain, or cultivate personal awareness.
Mindfulness is at the heart of many meditative practices, during which a person may be still or engage in specific activities such as hatha yoga or walking. Stillness and focus on the breath are commonly used to aid in meditation, but the practitioner can also recite a mantra. A person cultivates mindfulness during meditation by stilling thoughts about the past or future and noticing what is happening in the body. The mind naturally wanders, but a person who cultivates mindfulness takes notice of this wandering and then brings the mind back to the present and to her breath or mantra.
Mindfulness can also be practiced in everyday life, during almost any activity. You can work on being nonjudgmental by noticing biases or associations in your thinking and making an effort to eliminate them. Negative or positive feelings about external things can be recognized as coming from within themselves, rather than having an inherent connection to the external thing in question. Over time, mindfulness can help a person develop the ability to be calm or happy at will, as happiness is recognized as coming from within.
Dedicating even just a few minutes a day to practicing mindfulness can be a great stress reliever. Whenever you are forced to stand still during your daily routine it can be an occasion to reflect on your thoughts and to take note of your body and the sounds, smells, etc. of the outside world. Mindfulness practitioners believe that, over time, such thinking will become second nature, freeing the person from the confinement of judgmental thought patterns they may have built up over the years.
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