The Truth About Mindfulness: 5 Practical Tips That Will Make Us More Mindful Everyday 

As we head into the new week and month, may I remind you to stay mindful.

Mindfulness doesn't require us to pray, meditate or carry out any rituals; mindfulness merely asks us to pay attention to our surroundings, how we feel inside and how we make people feel while in our presence. It is intentionally being present in each moment of our experiences without evaluating it as good or bad. So when I speak of mindfulness, I do not speak in the Eastern sense or spiritual realm of emptying the mind of thoughts or watching our breath.

For me, mindfulness invites us to WATCH:

Watch our Words. 

Watch our Actions.

Watch our Thoughts.

Watch our Companions.

Watch our Habits.

Watch our Words

This tip reminds us to be mindful of the words we choose to use, as they can have a powerful impact on others. It encourages us to choose kind, inclusive, and respectful words toward all individuals.

Watch our Actions

This tip asks us to observe the behaviours and choices of people around us closely and to ensure that our actions align with our values and goals and the good we wish to see in the world.

Watch our Thoughts

This is a reminder to consciously acquaint ourselves with the thoughts that pass through our minds and their impact on our emotions and actions. Practicing mindfulness (catching your thoughts) can help you gain control over pessimistic, cynical or harmful thought patterns and improve your overall well-being.

Watch our Companions

This reminds us to be careful of the people we spend time with, as they do impact our behaviour and choices. While it is great to socialize with family and friends, the people we align ourselves with can be detrimental to our growth. It is crucial to cultivate good relationships with people who will positively impact our lives.

 Watch our Habits

This is a reminder to pay close attention to our settled ways of being and tendencies, as they significantly impact our lives. Bad habits are easy to form and hard to break. We can make positive changes and improve our well-being by paying attention to our destructive ways.

Being mindful of these things will inevitably shape our character—the inner person, and, as such, request an attitude of compassion for self and others.

Margaret Thatcher echoed an arrangement of the sentiment in the 2011 docu-film titled The Iron Lady. She ended by saying, "What we think, we become. My father always said that."

People often attribute the varying versions of the quote to Ralph Waldo Emerson, Lao Tzu, Buddha, Margaret Thatcher, or, more so, her father. 

Watch your thoughts; they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.

The quote embodies the true essence of mindfulness and has nothing to do with prayer or meditation per sé.

It is written in Proverbs 4:20-23 of the Old Testament, the Christian sacred text: 

... attend to my words; incline [your] ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from [your] eyes; keep them in ... [your] heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep [your] heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

While those words may sound archaic to us today, they are still relevant for our time. King Solomon (970 to 930 B.C.) is said to be the wisest person who ever lived and is the author of the Proverbs during his reign, yet he made some of the most foolish decisions, so who better to caution us? We, in the West, tend to conflate religious practices with practical precepts such as mindfulness, meditation and yoga. That is often due to a need for better understanding of Eastern spirituality and language ambiguity. 

Mindfulness is a practical thing, not a spiritual thing. While meditation and prayer lead to calmness and inner peace, mindfulness leads to compassion and outer peace or kindness. The two merely complement each other from a holistic perspective.

For example, when we pay attention to our physical sensations and what we can perceive in our environment, we can mind our words and actions so as not to cause offence to others. Likewise, breathing exercises and muscle scans can help us detect tension in our bodies. As we learn the techniques to become more self-aware, we calm ourselves down before we unleash our venom on others.  

® Andrene Gregory

Until next time,

Be Blessed. Be Bold. Be Strong. Be You!