Mindfulness for Peace of Mind
Mindfulness is the awareness, the deep awareness of our actions as we are doing them. Mindfulness is something that we all have and we can all use, at any time. However, it can be difficult for people who lead busy lives or who think quickly.
How to Use Mindfulness for Peace of Mind
Children Love Meditation
Children, even the crazy, ADD children, love practicing mindfulness and meditation. It makes sense to kids because they all love to give focused attention to whatever they are doing. Kids love the power and the “peace at ease” presence of both meditation and mindfulness. Once you have taught your children (or the children who you teach) to practice meditation, you can easily explain mindfulness to them. Mindfulness is an ability to be a state of active meditation and focused awareness while you are doing certain tasks. When the children you teach understand meditation and are able to practice it frequently, they will pick up mindfulness more easily.
Men Can Practice Active Meditation
Men, on average, have more linear thinking, which prevents them from having a distracted mind or a mind which tries to multitask. While some men may find this frustrating, this also gives them a definite edge in the mindfulness trade. Allowing their thoughts to be “light” and “clear” greatly reduces their stress levels, while also putting them into a more childlike, innocent state of mind. This simple, clear thinking particularly suits the way men think and they perceive and interact with their world.
Women May Find Mindfulness More Difficult in the Beginning
Women have more connections between their right and left hemispheres. This means that they are naturally programmed to switch back and forth between creative and logical thinking efficiently and without any difficulty. This also gives women the supercharged ability to multitask, keep track of a wide variety of things at one time (such as work, boss, coworkers, children, husband, car, home, AND the dog). This also means that women are far more prone to NOT use lists or to-do tasks on their phone or in a notebook to keep track of their thoughts so that they are free and able to be mindful about each of their individual activities. Women would do well to remember that, just because they CAN keep track of everything in their mind, it does not necessarily mean that this is the best option for most of their day. Mindfulness can be achieved only through concentration on a single current activity, and this cannot be fully, 100% accomplished if you are remembering to-do lists in your mind, rather than on paper.
The mind is at its calmest and most peaceful when it only thinks about and focuses on one thing at a time. This is what makes practicing mindfulness so powerful. Be sure to set reminders for yourself throughout the day so that you can remember to bring your mind back to a state of calm awareness on its current activity and start building the habit of continual mindfulness all day long.