Your Doorway to Equanimity & Mental Well-Being
Last month, we had shared perspectives on gratitude as an enabler to emotional wellbeing. Mental wellbeing is another aspect of holistic wellness that we are focusing on this month.
What would be your answer to the question, “An active mind produces more ideas than a quiet, peaceful mind.”. If you said true, think again. Eureka moments and ideas emerge more when the mind is calm and clear. A calm mind also means that stress and its related organ impacting hormones like cortisol are significantly reduced.
Mindfulness is an interesting practice to bring peace and equanimity. But what exactly is mindfulness? People often confuse it with meditation or an act of concentration, but it is different.
Perhaps the best definition was given by Kabat Zinn in 1994 who defined Mindfulness as, “paying attention, in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally”.This definition can seem quite complex but a simple way to look at it as the practice of “being conscious”, or “being aware”. When we concentrate, we focus our attention on something specific. When we practice mindfulness, our awareness is more general, broad and non-specific.
Meditation and mindfulness both impact wellbeing but the primary objective in meditating is to aim for thoughtlessness and to develop mastery for doing so. Mindfulness, on the other hand, is simply the act of being aware (and observing without attachment) – of sights and sounds outside, of sensations in our body, thoughts and emotions within and the space around us, for example.
A simple but powerful exercise for mindfulness is practicing breath awareness. Sit quietly on a chair, with your feet flat on the ground (legs uncrossed) and your hands resting above your knees, placed symmetrically. Your eyes can be open or closed (closed is preferable but, if you start feeling sleepy, it is better to keep your eyes open through the process). Breathe normally but use your belly to drive the inbreath and outbreath. This (belly breathing) is called yogic breathing. Observe a mild cooling sensation as you breathe in through your nose and a mildly warm sensation above the upper lip, where your outgoing breath leaves your nostrils. Simply observe your breath. Nothing is to be done. If your thoughts come, observe them dispassionately, without getting attached to them. There is no need to push the thoughts away. Let them come and go as if it is movie on a screen.
Do this for just 2 to 3 minutes at a time and 2 to 3 times a day and you will find yourself much calmer, not just in that moment but also throughout the day. You will be less prone to anger too if you persist with this over a long period. People have also reported a better control on hypertension with this simple activity.
Mindfulness practice can also be nicely applied to eating food, for example. You can start by blessing your food in gratitude, then take each bite slowly and deliberately, chewing it mindfully. Don’t eat whilst watching TV or browsing your mobile phone when you do so. You might actually be surprised at how your digestion process can improve with this simple act of mindful eating.
Mindfulness is not a rocket science but a rather simple but extremely powerful way of becoming equanimous, or even-tempered.
Do try it and share with us your experience.
There are other interesting exercises for practicing mindfulness whilst sitting, walking etc. Google Mahasati meditation and Walking meditation if you are interested in going deeper into the subject. Happy awareness.
