Is Mindfulness the key to happiness and inner peace? This topic can't even be considered without first addressing the Buddhist idea of "being in the moment." As far as I know, only highly practiced monks can do it. I know that I certainly cannot. No matter how hard I try.
The latest buzz-thought in therapy is Mindfulness, as in Mindful Meditation. I love the concept. I love the feeling, when and for as long as I can experience it at any one time. My own inner journeys open pathways of understanding that can not be experienced in any other way.
It is only in these moments of sustained inner awareness that I begin to see the multiple layers of existence. It is only in these moments of sustained inner awareness that I really "get" (if only for a flash of a moment) how glorious it is to "be in the moment."
And at that precise moment, I can feel myself being like a chess-piece in a three-dimensional chess game. Multiple prisms at one time. Infinity...and beyond. And then it's gone, isn't it?
It is in these nano-moments that the value of the practice of Mindful Meditation becomes clear. The goal of practice is to learn how to sustain these nano-moments so that we can take just a little bit of a longer look at this reality. To understand it, just a little bit better. To know it, just a little bit more profoundly. And hopefully, to bring some of this expanded reality back into our everyday living.
It is only in this nano-moment of insight do I realize the lesson of attachment and misery. I can experience anything but I can't hold onto it. I can love profoundly for that moment. But there is no time for thinking about what I might require back in order to make that experience worth the expenditure of my time and energy.
This Truth applies to all experiences but especially to "love." If this all seems a bit too esoteric and abstract: indulge me for just a moment more.
Can you remember a time when you had that wonderful explosion of feeling about something--anything. Bliss! Ecstasy! Even orgasmic!
And then immediately following come the worries and conditions. Will it last? Is it real? How much will it cost me? Will hurt follow? Loss? Grief? Despair? Agony?
And just as quickly, it's all gone. Sucked down the drain of attachment, worry, conditions, entitlement, expectations. Tsk. Tsk.
The trick, to me, is expanding my focus on the moment for as long as possible, staving off intrusion from both the past and the future; probably not for much more than a few more seconds. Hopefully, some of it will find its way into my daily existence.
Is it worth the time and energy spent in practice? I think so. What do you guys think? Please let me know.
Here's to your success....
Susan French
Hypnosis Clinician
888-333-3688
susanfrench2010@gmail.com
