Mindfulness as a tool when the mind is full

What is mindfulness? Well, I’m not going to define it from a dictionary and not even gonna say that it means meditation. I’ll rather say what I know: It is a state of mind where the mind is full of the situation that is happening in a specific moment, that means that you are fully concentrated on that task the whole time you are in it. Your mind is present. You have reached a state of mind where you can watch your thoughts as if you were watching a TV show, as something that comes and goes, something which isn’t real. Remember, a thought is just a that. Ideas that come and go, but the meaning is given by us, they have no meaning in themselves.

According to Wax (2013), practicing mindfulness will help you become mentally stable. One of the ideas that I can extract from her recommendations are the following:

1. Remember that you will die soon, therefore learn to savor each moment.
2. Focused attention produces gray matter, and gray matter makes you smart because your neurons start connecting with each other through the dendrites from their axons producing more synapses.
3. Focus your mind on positive situations that you have lived. Write them down. Journaling is good.
4. Evoke positive feelings through smell. Do you remember your grandma’s vanilla cake that you loved as a kid? Well, go buy vanilla scent!
5. Keep looking for new things. You can see that everywhere. A new flower in the garden, a new store, a new color in a house, etc. Register your findings. Your brain loves new stuff! Make small changes in your life: Choose another route home, sit on another chair, frequent other people, change your wardrobe. Just play!
6. Exercise gratitude and kindness, because it stops depression and sadness. Wish everyone a good day, hug people, thank life for being alive, be grateful to your parents for bringing you up, be grateful for your friends and so on…
7. Switch attention. If a bad feeling appears, move to another task and remember that it is just a thought (an image from a TV show).
8. And finally, fake it, till you make it!

It is hard work, but the path to happiness isn’t easy. It is like fighting for reaching a dream job, you will fall sometimes, but you have to learn to stand up because there is no other option in life. If you don’t raise, other will do it for you. If you want to be happy, then, commit. This is the most important commitment of your life because it is with you.

Do you think you can commit?