Five Reasons I Practiced Mindfulness and Its Effects

Day and night, there is just this one immortal instant opening out before us.

- Dr. Jacqueline Kornfield

Over the course of the last two years, the term “mindfulness” has become more common, but I had no clue what it meant at the time.

Blog posts like “Workplace Benefits of Mindfulness,” “The Positive Effects of Mindfulness on Love and Romance,” and “The Benefits of Mindfulness for Your Sexual Life” were popping up.

Then I saw a short clip elucidating what mindfulness is. The narrator was discussing how much better a cup of coffee tastes when you think of the farmers who grow the beans, the pickers who bring in the crop, and everyone else who has a hand in the process. The monk in the video then sipped his coffee slowly.

From what I gleaned from popular culture websites, I got the notion that practicing mindfulness was a panacea for all of life’s woes. Even though I was skeptical and had no idea what I was getting into, I decided to keep an open mind and learn more about mindfulness.

Everything “clicked” for me as soon as I started practicing, and I was able to sell it fast and effortlessly.

Although I advocate that everyone give it a try, I’ve learned that not everyone gets the same result. I hope this encourages you to keep going if you’ve been on the fence about trying this out.

1. The most precious commodity we have is time, and we must not waste it.

In June of 2012, at the age of 26, I was told I had congestive heart failure and had a little chance of living more than a year. I’m still here after all these years, and I’ve loved seeing my kid blossom into a fine young man. My heart has returned to normal with such startling rapidity that my doctor can hardly believe it.

With this second chance, I vowed to make the most of every moment and avoid wasting any time since you never know what the future holds.

Even if my problems are more serious than most, I believe we can all agree on this. Whether it was the death of a loved one, the end of a career or a relationship, or any other unexpected catastrophe, we have all felt its impact on our lives. Given the unpredictability of the future, today is the only day we have. Before I discovered the practice of mindfulness, I was under the impression that this was exactly what I was doing.

After beginning my first mindfulness course, I started to ask myself certain things I had never considered before since I had never realized they were important.

When was the last time I took a moment to appreciate the work that gravity does to keep me rooted to the ground?

Every day, all week long, I am breathing, but how often do I stop to think about it?

I wonder how many times I’ve traveled from A to B without paying attention to anything except the road.

For the last five years, I’ve fooled myself into thinking I was making the most of every day. I often find myself engaging in meaningless activities, including driving to work, eating, talking, and other social interactions. Mindfulness teaches me to be fully engaged in every facet of my life so that I don’t miss a thing.

2. Mindfulness has been backed by scientific studies.

I’ve always been one to question things thoroughly. Perhaps it’s because of the trust issues I’ve had since childhood. As a child, my dad drilled into me the idea that if something seems too good to be true, it generally is.

Before I contemplate trying anything new, I need to see really persuasive statistics and research that has scientific backing. As I’ve said before, I place a high value on my time and won’t waste it on a hunch or speculation.

It was about the time that I was introduced to mindfulness that I realized how much I enjoyed studying neuroscience. The prefrontal cortex is a really interesting part of the brain. Despite being the youngest, it is responsible for some of the most important things, such as:

• Regulation of emotions
• Control of one’s impulses
• Physical mastery
• Using one’s reason
• Relationships based on empathy
• Self-awareness

It is concerning that the human limbic system, which controls our innate responses, sometimes takes priority over the prefrontal cortex. But consistent mindfulness training has been shown to strengthen that region of the brain.

I have a general idea of which weightlifting techniques I may use to build bigger and stronger biceps. If I wanted to increase my stamina, I would do cardio. I should practice mindfulness if I want to improve all those abilities since it stimulates my prefrontal cortex. I am a skilled debater, but I will never argue against scientific evidence.

3. My mental stability is like a drifting ship.

I consider myself to be one of those people whose minds are always racing. Since I was a little kid, I’ve had trouble with this. In spite of the fact that I don’t think I suffer from ADD, my brain is always working on something.

This is a boon and a curse. My brain is wired to always think of ways to improve, which has served me well across a wide range of professions. The issue is that there are proper times and places for this, and if I do it while in the middle of a conversation or while doing an important job, I may run into trouble.

I also realized that my mind occasionally wandered to the most out-there ideas. I may be sitting at my desk at work, daydreaming about a scene from a popular 90s TV show, before realizing I’m really there. It’s like going out to get groceries and ending up at the park, baffled as to how you got there.

At first, I thought I was the only one to go through this, but it turns out that many others do. Mindfulness practice has helped me accept the fact that my mind processes tens of millions of thoughts every day. Problems arise when we fail to monitor the development of our thoughts.

The sooner I use anchors like my breath or anchor words like “thinking,” the less likely it is that my thoughts will wander.

My mind no longer wanders off course by a factor of 500, but rather by a factor of five.

In addition to helping my poor self-esteem, this has allowed me to laugh at myself.

In a flash, I can make a mountain out of an anthill with my mind. For instance, I may have said “Good morning!” to the receptionist when I first arrived at work, but she gave no indication that she heard me. When that used to happen, my thoughts would immediately go to “maybe she’s mad at me,” “I wonder what I did wrong,” and “I wonder if I’m about to get fired because nobody here likes me.”

My mind used to suddenly take the highway to insanity, but now I can stop it in its tracks and have a good laugh at myself.

4. You may learn to control your emotions by practicing mindfulness.

I immediately related to one of my mindfulness instructors when he said that we are never told as youngsters that life and emotions may be potent. I’ve struggled with being emotionally stable ever since I was a youngster. It’s not just that I feel something doesn’t cut it for me.

In my head, my feelings exist on a scale from ten points below zero to ten points above zero. Both the positive and negative feelings I had were always ten, which is really uncomfortable for me.

Through my study of mindfulness, I came to understand the meaning of equanimity and how much I needed it. I’ve always had a hard time avoiding feelings of depression and general sadness. Instead of being worried, I’d be nervous. I’d be more likely to get outraged than angry. When I got to know someone, I would immediately fall head over heels in love with them.

The second flaw I had was that I expected too much of myself and would remain optimistic at a level of +10 even when things didn’t go as planned.

The Buddhist teachings on the link between grasping and misery made sense. I was always reaching for their emotions, whether they were pleased or sad. Both of these situations were like holding onto a hot coal for too long.

Perhaps I let something that happened early in the day ruin the rest of it for me. Maybe I wasn’t able to get my job done because I was too excited about what I had planned for the rest of the day. Mindfulness has helped me become more in tune with and accepting of my current emotions.

This is easier said than done while experiencing great feelings, but what about the opposite? Thanks to this practice, I gained insight into the transience of negative feelings.

Now I can turn toward and accept my emotions. Like a leaf floating leisurely along a stream, my emotions come and go. Knowing that this sense of gloom will pass quickly allows me to give in to my current state of mind.

5. It helps my kid out.

My son’s capacity to manage his emotions and ideas has improved in part because I am a more attentive parent. We’re constantly looking for new things to do with our kids, as are other parents. About six months into my training, I realized how beneficial it would be for my child to begin training alongside me.

While in Southern California, we went to see my best friend. On our last day of vacation, my family and I took my son to the boardwalk, which was packed with fun activities. He may go to the shore, spend some time at an arcade, and snack on junk food while there. His day had started off badly (with an attitude problem) and ended much worse (with him weeping).

Nothing I did on the last day of our journey could bring a smile to his face. I thought he may be hungry, so we went out and got him some food. My mind warned me that his ingratitude might trigger a bad reaction from me. I thought maybe we were doing too much adult stuff, so we went to an arcade, but it didn’t work. Why did this happen?

He was tired but didn’t realize it.

It’s important to remember that my daughter, who was seven at the time, doesn’t have my level of knowledge and experience.

Since everything is so novel for him, he not only has trouble putting his feelings into words for me, but he frequently has no clue what they are. After we had sat down and taken a minute, he said that he was quite tired and hadn’t slept the night before.

As soon as we returned from our vacation, I started teaching him mindfulness techniques, and I’ve seen tremendous growth in him over the last nine months. He has a better-developed awareness of his feelings and has developed coping mechanisms of his own.

When he feels himself becoming worried about the future, he takes a deep breath to center himself in the here and now. He takes great pleasure in showing kindness and affection to all around him, including his younger brother, his friends, his family, and even complete strangers. In second grade, he discussed the benefits of meditation for an assignment.

Even though I thought I was happy and fulfilled before, my life has vastly improved as a consequence of my consistent practice. My understanding of the world and of myself expands daily.

I would stop practicing altogether if I stopped learning from it, but my own and other people’s experiences have convinced me that we are always growing and improving. So, whether you’re in a rut with your practice or curious about giving mindfulness a try, the important thing is to keep moving forward toward enlightenment.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post! Please don’t forget to follow me for more articles like this in the future! :-)

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