Where your body goes mind follows...

Hello, Namaste and Shalom!

Are we present where we are? Often our body is physically present at a certain place, while we are thinking and feeling about something in the past or future.  This behaviour leads to losing track of the present moment.  Every day in our life, there are situations like these, where we have lost focus to significant moments.  It may be while having breakfast or lunch, having a shower, travelling to work, during the meeting and every moment our attention has shifted focus, we have lost awareness, you have lost precious moments.

What is the reason for such behavior that comes up at the most critical moments in our lives? What causes our thinking to drift?  What is it that entwines us in this vortex of thought and feelings that take us away on a journey from this moment.  Are we made or molded like this?

Let us go a little back in time, from a young age we are told to focus, pay attention, listen to what is said.  But we aren't taught the method or process to be attentive.  It is assumed that we understand what it means to be attentive.  We go through a process of trial and error, and learn to pay attention.  Also attached to this process of learning to pay attention are a lot of judgmental filters that cloud the processes.  Interestingly, none of this is done systematically and regularly. Yet, some of us learn to be more attentive and some less and we are not sure how we do it.

Let us look at three real life scenarios that I faced in my life. I was in the fourth standard.  The exam was just over and after the bell we were moving back to our own classes.  I was pretty excited as the paper had gone well.  As we were moving from the ground floor to the first to go to our class, I started to climb up the stairs, and in my excitement, I made a quick decision to skip jump the stairs.  In doing so, I missed the stairs.  I stretched my arms to break my fall and landed on my right arm below my upper body.  I had fractured my right forearm about four inches from the wrist.  I was in pain and was sent home to be taken to a doctor, and my hand was in cast for 6 weeks.  Now to come to the point, I had made a quick decision to skip jump the stairs without calculating the distance and paying attention to how I was going to skip the steps with full attention and awareness.  Secondly the excitement that I was feeling overwhelmed me and so, my attention and awareness was diverted.

The second incident I’d like to share.  I was in class seventh and it was a normal school day.  The teacher was explaining the lesson.  Listening to it my attention was diverted and I began to look out of the window daydreaming.  I wasn’t aware of this and was lost in my thoughts.  Suddenly in the distance I heard the teacher calling my name. I awoke from my daydreaming.  I felt a sense of embarrassment as the teacher asked me, what point was she explaining.

The third incident.  Years later I was in an office meeting.  As the discussion progressed, I became engrossed in thinking about what had happened the previous day and lost awareness of the current discussion.  I was not aware of the thoughts I was engrossed in.  I suddenly heard a lot of laughter and my attention and awareness got back to the discussion.  Interestingly it was a joke on the idea being discussed, yet I had lost the moment to a lively discussion.

Not able to pay attention and be aware can be costly in our lives, with our relationships, and at work...  Think for a moment where you lost focus and were not aware of what was going on.  What was the outcome of that moment in our life when you were not mindful?  We do know that a lot of accidents and mistakes take place due to the person at the helm of activities, not paying attention and awareness of what is happening.  They have lost attention and awareness and their focus is on some other activity.  They have not been mindful.  The outcome is costly.  The information age gave us a lot of data, but we became a distracted lot. We are not focused on what needs to be done.  We are more focused on what we want done!

Lets understand the above three situations.  All of their physical body is at a particular place so the obvious thing is the mind also should be present there.  As we don’t work consciously, to train minds from a young age to be attentive and aware in a systematic manner, we cannot expect to become better at focusing.  We can also add this to issues related to our emotional state of mind where we have not understood ourselves better.  I’ll leave that for another article.

So where the body goes the mind goes and where the mind goes our energy flows.

Sifu Carlton Hill

A Case for Being Mindful!

Hello, Namaste and Shalom!

In my last article, I explained in brief through an example of how mindful we can be when learning to ride a bicycle.  I also mentioned that being mindful is paying attention, being aware and remembering to do it repeatedly. Today, I would like to make the case of being mindful.

In the last decade or more we have lived through an information economy.  Over a period of time the convergence of the computer, net and mobile phones has led to a seamless connectivity of information and entertainment.  Today, we are connected to more devices and social media applications but our levels of focus and awareness have dwindled. Our personal, family, work… lives are more distracted than fulfilling due to the constant bombardment of information and entertainment that keeps giving us the wrong notion that everything is important and can make us happy.  We are less focused and more distracted. We have become less happy beings and more stressed. We are not singularly able to focus on an activity as our mind tends to be focused on more than one thing at a time. .We even have the false notion that we can multi-task. We have become addicted to the rush of dopamine (feel good), when we hear the ping and sense the vibrations of our mobile devices.  From being a boon, information technology has become a bane to society.

I know you may say that I have painted a grim image. Since you are reading this article, let me ask you a question.  How many times did your attention shift, as you were reading this article? Were you consciously aware of the shift in focus? What was your response when you realised that your focus had shifted.

Now in most cases if you are not mindful, your focus would have shifted and when you realised, you may have started to berate, chastised or scold yourself.  That apart, think of the number of times in the day you aren't focused or your physically present in one place, but your mind is on a totally different journey.  You miss important parts of your life due to this shift in focus which keeps on moving. It seems like your mind has a mind of its own.

Think of those moments in your life when you aren't able to bring your attention to, what needs to be done, whether it's being creative, learning, listening, working...  Here again you may berate yourself.

Lets say that you are in a meeting. You start with paying attention, and as the meeting progresses your mind starts to shift focus.  Suddenly in the distance you hear your name being called and your attention is back to the meeting. You are asked a question, but since your attention was far away you aren't able to give a reply. You answer that you need more time to think. Everyone's attention shifts to another person.  You breathe a sigh of relief cursing yourself for your lack of attention.

There are moments in life when you are facing a situation that may seem to be difficult to overcome. Due to these thoughts you have certain feelings that are associated with it and they get manifested into your behaviour.  The more you think about this situation as difficult, painful, stressful..., more feelings associated with them arise. You begin to believe your thoughts to be real which increase feelings like fear, anxiety, anger, unease....

So if you look at the above scenarios, you notice being swayed by the thoughts and feelings that arise in your mind, believing them to be reality.  If you would be mindful about those moments, you would be able to see how your mind functions and be able to have an appropriate response. But why just be mindful only at these moments. Practicing it with compassion and being kind to yourself can help you lead a more aware, focused and fruitful life.