What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is improved concentration and increased patience.

Patience is something that many people today do not have. Society has created a cycle of impatience – we want everything instantly, including mindfulness. Our minds have become so weak that we have wanted to create something new. But true mindfulness is nothing new. It is a wisdom that we learn with patience, concentration and through meditation.

People today don’t deal with the real problem. We’re looking for a quick fix, and that’s never going to work.

The real problem is our inability to have a single goal in life. Every time a new situation appears in our lives, we must reinvent ourselves to adapt. For example, when we get married, we adapt; When we get a new job, we adapt.

People sometimes ask me what mindfulness, or mindful living, is. You live consciously when your regrets from the past and your worries about the future do not interfere with your present.

When you are free from thoughts of the past and future, and live in the moment – this is conscious living.

The challenge comes when these new situations appear in our lives, since we have not been taught to be flexible. We have learned to have rigid thinking; to operate mechanically and with instructions.

We have never been trained to think flexibly.

Which is worrying because the only thing that is certain in life is change. Living consciously requires practice. To achieve true mindfulness, your mind must be fully developed. And not only in the area in which you have trained (where you have the most experience or success), but in all areas of your life.

To develop your mind, you need to deal with incomplete problems. This is achieved through meditation. It takes us 23 minutes to process all our thoughts, so if you meditate for 23 minutes, you will have processed one cycle of thoughts. Just like a washing machine, some things need a 23-minute cycle to process, and others need more. When you practice shorter meditations – some old thoughts appear – but you are not allowing enough time to process them fully. We recommend a minimum of 25 minutes to meditate and process your thoughts. If you meditate less than that you are not completing the cycle, so it alters what helps.

It is important to practice this as we have a limit, and if we do not deal with our incomplete problems – our mind can become upset. When this happens we can feel all kinds of negative emotions or a general dissatisfaction with life. Plus, we feel the pressure of having to deal with all of our incomplete problems at once.

True mindfulness is when you are able to see balance and contentment in your life.
Living in the moment can only be achieved through a connection with the soul. That’s the key.

Sri Swami Purohit