In this blog, Dr Howpage asks,
‘What would you do when you feel your Mind is full, but you are not Mindful?’
She points out that when you are stressed, ‘your Mind is full with unhappiness and tension, so your Mind is absent to experience this moment.’
Dr Howpage asks the reader not to let go of this moment without experiencing it. Here is her guide on how you can have Mindful moments effortlessly.
Take a moment to conceptualize something in your Mind: an object, a picture, imagery.
For example, ‘The grey coloured sky.’
If you are an author, your story will begin like this.
Dr Howpage points out that just the grey colour of the sky evoked many emotions that had nothing to do with the moment. How we perceive the grey colour leads to a cascade of thoughts and feelings which paint a bleak, depressing state, far from the cheerful happiness you might expect.
See how the Mind can rob the moment and not let you experience it?
See how the Mind clutter your moment with other things that have nothing to do with this moment?
So here is the trick to declutter the Mind, a strategy.
See – ‘The colour is Grey. Not any other colour.’
Feel – ‘Temperature is a bit cold. Because there is no sunshine.’
Taste – ‘There is no taste to what I am experiencing apart from what I feel in my mouth naturally.’
Smell – ‘The smell around me is neutral.’
Sound – ‘There is silence around me.’
Then the same story becomes different. For example, if you are an author who practices Mindfulness, your story will begin like this.
‘Today I see the grey colour of the sky in vast expansion with the cloud. Without sunshine, it is natural to feel cold. I feel this moment. There is no judgement involved with my emotions. This moment surrounded me with grey colour of the sky, cold Temperature, no smell and silence. It is peaceful, neutral. There is no happiness or sadness. It is neutral, just the way it is.’
Dr Howpage invites you to experience the moment in its true sense, not to glorify it as happiness or not to demean it as sadness.
It is all in the Mind, and it depends on how you experience it.
Control the Mind with Mindfulness.