Mindfulness— The Art of Paying Attention + Good Judgement

Originally written on May 8, 2018. Decided to publish so I can access this anywhere anytime.

Mindfulness is something you need to do to become more conscious. It allows you to get connected both to yourself and your surroundings. However, most of the time, the idea of mindfulness becomes unclear in times of pitfalls. This guide will tell you how you avoid pitfalls and how you can achieve them completely.

Capability of having reliable memories and thus good judgment

The best thing you can get by being mindful is you will have the capability to have reliable memories and thus be able to have good judgment. When you are not mindful there will be cases where you just don’t know what even is good or bad or how things are actually simple.

Not being mindful would make you have this kind of trust issue that you can’t decide if the info you just knew is something you would believe or can have faith into. It’s just hard to determine. But by being mindful, you can just avoid all these unnecessary hesitations you put on yourself.

Few more advantages of being mindful

1. You won’t be wasting time because you know what to do and how to do it
2. You would avoid things that will hurt or at the very least, you would be able to anticipate them and be able to settle things promptly
3. You will remember the things you are doing, even the small ones which you’ll be able to reflect better in the future

How to achieve mindfulness — a few tips

Every day is a new day. If you believe that it is similar to yesterday then you are not being mindful. If it’s so hard for you to identify new things, look at your surroundings and choose something to be observed. Ask yourself

• Why did that thing become like that?
• What happened before that?
• How was it constructed?
• What would happen to that thing in the future if this-or-that happen?

Take everything in the right amount of tempo. Take it slow if your mind is not processing things fast. The thing is you should be conscious and aware of

• What is happening?
• What happened beforehand?
• What may happen?

Be always deliberate. Make sure you are conscious of what you are doing and your sound mind is the one who is in control of your actions. Do not let yourself be controlled by the external environment or internal impulses.

In summary, you just have to really observe and pay attention to things.

Before you start doing anything

Make sure to fill the gap where you lack, then connect things, and maintain it. Ask yourself if is this complete or if is that all it is.

• For example, you just had a meeting, you took notes. It was all scribbles, so you have to retake it in the most comprehensible way. It should not be cluttered unless you can assure it is complete and identify inconsistencies. Note also that if you are organized, it will be easier for you to track things.

Make sure to fill the loss and rebuild it. Ask yourself how to avoid it next time, or better if you get the answer of avoiding it fully.

• For example, you had an interview, and you mentioned something but were not able to explain it well. Why did that happen? How can you avoid this next time? How are you so sure that it is the way to avoid it?

Before you stop or take a break

Walk-through on what will you do tomorrow to achieve your task effectively. If you think it’s unlikely to be achieved, are there ways you can achieve that? What happened earlier what you shouldn’t do next time? How you would avoid it totally next time? And what is the actual reason you should avoid it?

Evaluate mind disturbances by doing task that requires agility and accuracy or precision. These metrics may not be reliable considering if the person has done the same and again that he’ll get used to it. Unless there’s positive progress in such activity if done often as daily.

Anything that may seem or would possibly distract you on the next day must be solved as soon as possible, or at least, as soon as you have the time and are still aware of it. Thus, before sleeping — the more it’s still fresh from your memory, the more details you can extract, and the more details, the more accurate and easier you would able to solve that.

Few items on difficulties in mindfulness

Settled in Comfort Zone. Probably you have settled, that the situation you are in right now seems okay, and that you no longer need to be mindful. But I don’t think that “okay” is okay when it would let you fall into a situation that is not desirable.

Visualize the ff. — these are the real-life cases you need to be mindful of. For this, I will share some of my experiences.

• I should be mindful of what I eat because I had that one time that my tooth ached that the pain was not bearable
• I need to save money and take care of my health because of that one time I had to go for a check-up but I don’t have any money

Small Acts from Influence. You tend to forget that small things or decisions impact the momentum of being mindful thus you just do them impulsively.

From my experience and point of view:

• Eating just because you are told to. But the truth is you are not feeling the hunger.
• Opening the fan because it seems too hot and the idea of being sweaty is embarrassing. But the truth is you can manage the heat and you don’t care what people think.

How to do it right? Grounding Method

Disclaimer: This may only apply to neurodivergents.

1. Feel everything through your whole body, your guts won’t tell a lie.
2. Gather your thoughts and senses at least 4 senses at a time. Make sure you’re able to control these 4 or more senses when you are awake. Senses means seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching, feeling, intuition

Result: You must be able to visualize what you are sensing because the result of the grounding method is to have a presence of mind

Consequences of not being mindful

That mindfulness, our actions, and our decisions are interconnected. If you are deciding without a clear view and understanding of its consequences, then accept the long-term consequences of your decisions i.e. losing opportunities, “wounds” that require you more effort and time, etc.

Mindfulness has no metrics

There are no metrics when it comes to mindfulness. It should be something that is felt by your body. Ironically, there would be a tendency to get stressed and overthink when you get fixated on these metrics.

☕ If you enjoy the writing, feel free to donate: ko-fi.com/thoughtlessmeditation

✍️ More advices at thoughtlessmeditation.com