“We’re not here, for that long, anyway. But to spend almost half our time lost in thought, and for the most part unhappy at that–well that’s pretty tragic, isn’t it?”
– Andy Puddicombe
How does your mind work? What brought you here? What patterns occupy your thoughts and recur, repeatedly?
Andy Puddicombe talks about the power of meditation and how beneficial it is for each of us to stop for ten minutes each day and simply to look at how our mind is working. (The link takes you to a 9-minute TED talk).
When you stop and look at your thoughts, he asks, do you notice–
- That you’re dwelling and ruminating on one particular, circling, repeating thought?
- That you’re reinforcing certain story lines and patterns of mind?
- That your mind is restless and agitated?
- That your mind is dull, boring, or mechanical?
- That you have a nagging thought that comes around and around?
How does your mind work, anyways?
The point of mindfulness isn’t judgment or instantaneous change, but rather, an awareness of what is actually happening in your mind, without judgment. It’s familiarity with the present moment, and an awareness of how, in fact, your mind is working.
Sometimes in order to know what’s on your mind, you have to slow down and take a look at that very mind. What’s in it?
Enjoy,
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Thank you for sharing! Very useful for me.
[...] Something that I’m def. not very good at = meditation. Saw this great TED talk by Andy Puddicombe called All it takes is 10 mindful minutes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzR62JJCMBQ). Thanks to Sarah Kathleen Peck and her blog, http://itstartswith.com/2013/01/onyourmind/ [...]
This is great, Sarah. I recently took Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course and it was beneficial in jump starting my mindfulness practice. His research at Harvard about the benefits of mindfulness are solid. Glad to see you writing about it!