And you – you are thinking … how if you want to cook that dish for dinner you will need to dash to the supermarket to buy two missing ingredients, and exactly how much milk is left in the fridge, you should probably buy another litre, and you should have hung out the washing before you came out walking because it is such a great drying day but the clothes are still bunched up inside the washing machine and even if you hang it out the second you get home the best part of the sunlight on your drying lines will be gone. Aren’t you?
Definitions of mindfulness generally incorporate Jon Kabat-Zinn’s description, which is: paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, without judgement. It doesn’t come naturally to most of us and it’s a skill that must be learned and practised. Mindfulness is a process of becoming aware of what is going on around us, noticing things but not getting caught up in them or making judgements, even noticing that your mind has gone back to what to cook for dinner tonight, but not berating yourself.
Many models of psychological therapy, particularly those that focus on equipping people with skills to manage negative, painful emotions, teach mindfulness. There are exercises you can learn to help you grasp and practise mindfulness. You can practise it in a group or by yourself. You can ring a bell to signify to yourself when mindfulness is going to begin and end. You can try a sensory exercise. Take a Kool Mint into your fingers, and then into your mouth. What does it look like, feel like? What does it taste like? What sound does it make when it comes into contact with a tooth? I never really liked Kool Mints… ooh, there’s a thought, let it come, and go, and return your thoughts to the sensations. Or just sit quietly and notice your breathing. The rise and fall of your belly and chest, the air in your nostrils. If your mind drifts off in thought the waist band of these jeans seems to have shrunk just bring it gently back to your breathing.
Mindfulness is not so much a treatment for people caught in depressed or anxious thinking patterns, but an approach to life that can be helpful. You could spend hours mulling over past regrets and angers, or worrying about the future. And as such you may miss out on the good and reassuring things happening around you. Mindfulness – if you practise – can provide a much-needed break from unhelpful overthinking.
