How is mindfulness helping me?

Mindfulness is moment by moment, non-judgmental awareness. Since last year, I have been exploring it more actively. How is it helping me?

• I can loosen the grip of my reactive thinking patterns and emotional bindings.
• The healing energies from inside get a chance to emerge and permeate my mind and body with a relaxing/soothing effect.
• It connects me with my intuition or inner insights to realize my potential.

I am sharing my experience and thoughts in this thread.

The meditation techniques guide me to focus on my breathing. My mind would drift away with my inner weather of feelings, thoughts, and emotions. I can gently bring the attention back to the breathing pattern.

Being a witness or observer of my thoughts is incredibly empowering: in moments of self-awareness, I can watch the drama in my head without being an actor or a role player in it.

It elevates me to a higher plain of perspective to understand and navigate my thinking patterns.

When I can anchor my attention to breathing, it has a soothing, relaxing effect on me.

There are meditation techniques such as body scan where I can tune into and lose myself in body sensations – heartbeats, throbbing in my legs or hands, vibrations in my head, twitching, pulsation, pains, and aches, etc. My mind could be in the virtual reality or drama of thoughts. However, my body is always present at the moment: tuning into it brings my mind also to the present moment where I can listen to the sounds, see my surroundings with curiosity and newness, feel the puff of wind and my clothes on my skin, smell the air, feel my body from inside. It brings me to my senses, both physically and also figuratively.

On the days when I can be present with an active awareness of my breathing or body sensations, my heart beats slow down. It connects me with stillness from inside. I feel rejuvenated: it brings clarity & stillness to my mind.

The moments of stillness help me tune into the voice from inside and figure ways to follow through on it. I get the energy and drive to enjoy the creativity of music, writing, coaching, etc. That, in turn, makes me more mindful, creating a positive spiral of change, development, and healing from inside.

Mindfulness opens up space for me to see things with a fresh outlook: it can bring magic to the mundane.

When I am aware of my emotions, feelings, and thoughts without labeling them as bad or good, it opens up space from inside to soften up and dissolve.

Could it be a mental block/anxiety for a new initiative?
Am I hard on myself in a certain way?
Is there a long-lasting hurt/emotional drag from a challenging memory or an encounter?
Is my ego/emotional bind holding a grudge for someone/something?

Mindfulness brings them in the light of awareness. When I am simply observing without judging, it is allowing me to detach from those bindings. The analogy I have learned and experienced is that my spacious awareness can open up to be like a blue open sky, and thoughts and feelings are like bubbles or clouds dissolving in it without any trace. It is a very liberating experience when I can slow down my mind and visualize in this way using meditation.

It is as if difficult memories, emotional discomfort trapped in the narrow, dark dungeons of my ego get a chance to open up in a vast open, bright sky and pass through and dissolve. Mindfulness and meditations help me let go: they help me connect with and tap into the vibrant universal energy of consciousness full of compassion, boundless joy, peace, happiness, abundance, and creativity.

When I have a vantage point to witness my inner weather of thoughts and feelings rather than being swept away or inundated by it, it opens up space to make a conscious choice between what has happened to me and how I respond to it. It allows me to pause and imagine/visualize my narrative proactively. It opens up a channel to grow, develop and expand.

When I travel to a new place for a vacation or explore nature, the newness brings me to my senses. I am more engaged in my surroundings, and it rejuvenates me. The moments of mindfulness are like “vacation” from the daily grind: I can bring the liveliness of a new experience right at this moment, wherever I might be, and whatever I might be doing. After all, every moment is unique, and mindfulness allows me to embrace it with openness, childlike curiosity, and freshness.