Mindfulness

Reference Post

You're not here right now. More accurately, the location of your body and your mind are highly unlikely to be occupying the same space at the moment.

Your mind may be somewhere in the future, attempting to assess and prepare for what's approaching; it may also be in the past, reflecting on our choices and our interactions. But it is very unlikely that our minds are anywhere in the present.

The Present

It's surprisingly difficult to be in the present, especially when the present is boring. But that's where everything is actually happening. Are you even aware of the feel of your clothing on your body? The way you're sitting? How many different colors do you see? How many different sounds are you hearing? Are you in the present at all?

Time brings experience, experience brings regret, regret brings fear, and both fear and regret are painful emotions. It's base instinct to avoid pain; so it makes sense that one would look to the past to mold the future, all to avoid pain. We may look forward or backward for many other reasons: we may reflect fondly on yesterday, and excitedly on tomorrow, but ultimately we lose our present. Losing ourselves needlessly in the coming and going is a powerful blinding force, for when we do so, it's as if our whole bodies dull, and our senses blur.

Look around. Listen. Stop thinking about things that aren't there with you, all of them. What do you feel?

Preconception

So by the time you get to the end of this sentence, will you know the total number of words in it? Or do you have to go back and count? Did you count the number of letters? If you were to close your eyes and point in a completely random direction, then open your eyes, could you explain to yourself what you were pointing at without using any words?

People are fantastic at giving things names. We also love to create and use symbols in order to communicate ideas. Eventually, as if by a miracle, we stop looking at things or symbols, and see them as an amalgamation of concepts. Why do we do this? Because it's so much easier on the brain to slap a single label on what our eyes take in, than to have to send every moment through a gauntlet of thorough observation. The number of letters you read, the specific shapes of them, the number of words, the order of the letters in the words: all of these are lost to the reader in lieu of the concepts each word represents.

So what happens when you stop looking at something the way your brain has decided to look at it, and thoroughly try to see it for what it is, instead of what you've decided it should be?

Practicality

The ability to see the world afresh can do wonders for one's perception. When we see everyday objects and refuse to think that's all they can be, invention and innovation can follow. When we see people who are unlike us, and we observe their behavior for what it is, instead of comparing it to our own approaches, deeper understanding can be yielded for a spectrum of benefits.

Of course, there's no good reason to outright abolish preconceived thought. Not everything needs thorough observation all the time. You don't need to know everything about the cars around you to react accordingly to their presences.

But there's a reason why they say you should stop and smell the roses.