The Practice of Mindfulness
Let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room: my attractor state is one of overstimulation, compulsive productivity and chaosssss 🎉 And I am about to give advice about mindfulness and meditating. Is someone monitoring this blog?! Helloooo, anyone?
Given my natural inclination to regularly run myself into the ground through my many hobbies and short-lived, meaningless pursuits, it could actually be argued that my life may be the best testimonial of mindfulness? I’ve been practicing the art of mindfulness for a couple of months now, and it’s truly changed my approach to how I move through the world.
BACKGROUND
I’ve spent many years of my twenties doing tertiary studies, most of which have been musical or religious subjects, but at the beginning of the year I decided I wanted to take a psychology subject. The subject was called ‘True Happiness.’ My hopes were that I could enjoy a random subject that has no real connection to my life as a full-time creative. I had no idea that this subject would CHANGE. MY. LIFE.
MINDFULNESS. WHAT IS IT?
Mindfulness can be described as ‘paying attention in a specific way, that is, in the present moment, and as non-reactively, as non-judgmentally, and as openheartedly as possible’ (Kabat-Zinn, 2015). Being mindful could look like closing your eyes and just trying to acknowledge all of the layers of sounds you can hear without being led away from the present moment by one of those sounds. You want to stay in the present moment.
Throughout my months of mindfulness practice, I learned that this way of being can become a sort of mental armour against rumination and unhealthy mind-wandering. I also learned that entering into a state of mindful meditation allows our mind to enter into ‘deep rest,’ which encourages cellular restoration (Jha, et al., 2019). If you can’t nap, then sit up, close your eyes and meditate for a few minutes. It might just do the trick!
One more tidbit before I get into some practical tips… this one is from neuroscientist, Sarah Lazar. Meditation can literally change your brain! In her article ‘The Neuroscience of Meditation’, Sarah explains that people who meditate can better separate the front of the brain, being the executive functioning region, from the sensory part of their brain. Put simply, the more one meditates, the more they can decouple their reactions to sensations such as pain. You can read more about how it works here: https://heartfulness.org/magazine/the-neuroscience-of-meditation
‘Sylvia Boorstein once said, “Life is painful, suffering is optional.”’
TIPS:
Start small- just a couple of minutes of mindfulness. ‘Meditation’ can sound scary because you might think you need to hum or chant, which is why I chose to focus on mindfulness (revisit the definition above if you need). So start small, just a couple of minutes.
Begin by focusing on your breath. You could try box breathing (4 counts in, 4 count hold, 4 counts out, 4 count hold).
Meditating once may frustrate you, but meditating a couple of days in a row may change your life! The more you meditate, the better you get at it.
Close your eyes when you are attempting to be mindful so that you can block out distractions.
Try habit-stacking if you’re struggling to get into a routine. For example, once you start boiling the kettle in the mornings, sit down for a moment of mindfulness without compromise. When the kettle reaches boiling, you’re done.
HOW MINDFULNESS RELATES TO PERFORMING ARTISTS
As performing artists, our minds can be buzz-buzz-buzzing with ideas constantly, but what if I told you that most of our ideas are coming from only half of our minds; half of our resources? We spend so much time focusing on ‘thought’ that we forget to focus on ‘awareness.’ I heard Jon Kabat-Zinn compare this to attempting to walk on only one leg when we have a perfectly good other leg too. Our minds are imbalanced and these ideas might be coming from a place of chaos.
How would things be different if we grew our awareness? What ideas could come from a place of awareness rather than a place of thought? If we learned to appreciate things such as what is in front of our eyes, or the sounds we hear when we actually listen to our surroundings, or the foods we taste when we chew slowly and with intention. I believe that we would not only be more peaceful, content, happy and compassionate, but that we could tap into a whole new world of creativity.
Recommendation
In a similar vein, I began reading Eat Pray Love this week, and although I know it’s frowned upon to recommend a book before you’ve finished reading it, this one is reeeeally good so far! Hear me out!
The movie is obviously a classic, but I had never read the book. It follows a woman, Elizabeth Gilbert, on her journey of self-discovery after a divorce and an identity crisis, of sorts. One of the most impactful lines in the book (and the movie) is: ‘I had actively participated in every moment of the creation of this life—so why did I feel like none of it resembled me?’ (pg 12). How profound, yet relatable is that?! Elizabeth packs up and travels to a few countries to find deeper meaning to her life, and I would highly recommend this book if you’re in the mood for some deeper meaning too. Her self-awareness is equal parts insightful, entertaining and inspiring.
I hope your year is going well, and if it’s not, REMEMBER THIS: just like in a meditation, you can always start again. There is always another breath to recentre you. There is always another opportunity to restart. And why not now? It’s a beautiful time to recentre if you need to.
References
Jha, A. P., Zanesco, A. P., Denkova, E., Morrison, A. B., Ramos, N., Chichester, K., Gaddy, J. W., & Rogers, S. L. (2019). Bolstering cognitive resilience via train-the-trainer delivery of mindfulness training in applied high-demand settings. Mindfulness, 11(3), 683–697. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-019-01284-7
Kabat-Zinn, J. Mindfulness. Mindfulness 6, 1481–1483 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-015-0456-x
Lazar, S. The Neuroscience of Meditation. June 10, 2023. https://heartfulness.org/magazine/the-neuroscience-of-meditation
