When I heard this story, I understood “mindfulness” even deeper.
One day Buddha was giving a sermon to his followers and he drove flies away. And then he did the same action once again. One of the disciples asked, “Why did you do the same action twice?”
Then Buddha answered, “The first time, I did it unconsciously. The second time, I did it consciously.”
People practice "Mindfulness." They say “Live consciously.” But what does "mindful" or "conscious" mean?
Here is my answer. Living consciously, or being mindful, means living knowing or noticing what we are doing, thinking, or what our body is sensing.
What is the good thing about living consciously?
“The quality of your mind determines the quality of your life.” – Sam Harris (American philosopher and neuroscientist)
Well, this is an example in my daily life. When I am conscious, and when I know what I am doing, I don’t make mistakes. I know what I am clicking on, and I know this one click is going to send an email to my friend after checking the subject line and the content.
Another example is when I know my body sensation, I don’t overeat.
When we live consciously, we notice our thoughts and body sensations. The thoughts might be very harmful and don’t serve us to be happy. When we are conscious, we can redirect the thoughts so that we don’t go further to the harmful depth.
This is a result of my practicing mindfulness and living consciously.
I was claiming a medical fee on an insurance company's website, and it was super duper frustrating. There were so many options and I didn’t know which one to choose. I was so annoyed and I called a help center.
A lady picked up my call. She was very kind and seemed willing to help me. But even with her help, my frustration didn’t go away, rather it became even stronger. But the good thing was I notice I was frustrated, annoyed even angry. I said to her “I am so frustrated!!! UGHHHH.” But I also said to her “It isn’t your fault. You are doing a great job😊”
My consciousness level rises as I practice meditation
When I am conscious, I don’t react when someone says what I don’t like, but when I am not conscious, I talk with anger.
The fastest way to develop this skill is meditation.
While we are meditating, we pay attention to our thoughts and body sensation. Meditation is an opportunity where we purposely create a time and space to devote our mind to our thoughts and body sensations.
When we practice meditation, we can become more sensitive to our thoughts and body sensation.
So, here what I really want you to explore is to establish a habit of meditation. Just one mindful deep breath a day is good enough. The more you do, the more conscious you are.
And before you meditate, make the purpose of meditation clear. There could be many purposes of mediation. But you can try this purpose first. You meditate to “train your muscle to notice your thoughts and body sensations."
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