Mindfulness
Ecclesiastes 3 (The Holy Bible, NIV version)
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die . . . for I saw that there is nothing better for a man (or woman) to enjoy his (or her) work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him (or her) to see what will happen after him (or her)?” (I added the parenthetical text)
Where Does the Time Go?
“Tree of Life” Mural in Estacada, Oregon
It was December 2014 as I recall, my first foray into mindfulness. It took me a while to return to it, eh, guess I wasn’t “mindful” of this blog topic. It was hard for me to find the “hook”, given there are so many perspectives that a writer might choose. I decided to dive right in, and I purchased Jon Kabat-Zinn’s (JKZ) Series 3 app for my phone. Once I started reading the instructions (see my disclaimer), I realized that, given that I’m a “newbie”, I probably should have started with Series I.
Disclaimer
I think any discipline or effort to improve yourself is worth doing. I chose the words discipline and effort because changing your routine or lifestyle requires both to affect a change in yourself. Maybe a third word commitment should be included. Speaking from experience I know that drifting along in day-to-day habits, good or bad, doesn’t take much effort.
Here’s my approach, just throwing this out there for you, you can decide if this might work for you.
- What is mindfulness? JKZ’s web site explains it well, and there are many books on the subject.
- Why would I want to try it? Still working on that.
- What are the basics and how can I learn it? Same answer as above.
- When is the best time to practice it? Anytime.
- Is it popular and who is doing it? More on this later.
A 23,000 Foot View
Just to introduce you to the subject a bit, read this description from one of JKZ’s books, Wherever You Go, There You Are – Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life. I love the first part of the title, reminds me of a bumper sticker that I saw many years ago. Take a minute or two on his web site, read his bio, read how he describes mindfulness, and if you want to grab one of the apps, read the descriptions on each JKZ Series page (as I was saying, if you’re a newbie you might want to start with Series 1 just to check it out).
Pragmatism is a Virtue?
I’m a pragmatist by nature . . . why should I do a specific thing unless there is a practical application or benefit? For example, “meditation” – I don’t need no stinkin’ meditation, I’m a beer-drinkin’, fried chicken lovin’, Texan (actually a transplanted Texan living in Oregon). But seriously, having time on my hands recovering from my injury, I’ve had a chance to consider how some of those not-so-practical activities like meditation might be practical.
“Train Bridge” by bretbernhoft of Freesound.org, recorded in Portland, Oregon on July 2011
A friend of mind Richard Rex (fellow gym rat), who is writing a book, kindly consented to let me use excerpts from his book in progress.
“Mindful Breathing
Ask professional photographers and they will admit to breathing deep before taking pictures. Ask the NBA’s best free throw shooters what they do prior to shooting and you get the same answer.
It apparently began around 500BC, when Siddhartha Gautama, also known as Buddha, mastered meditation. His success came after endless distractions were overcome. Since then meditation has been adapted to every facet of life from religion to basketball.
Meditation defines its fundamental building block as Mindful Breathing. In essence, meditation begins by focusing only on one’s breathing.
Americans breathe too fast on average, leading to shallower more tense respiration. This does you no favor at the free throw line. Slower well defined deep breathing also promotes a well developed respiration system reliant on fewer but stronger breaths.”
One More Example
This was in the Reader’s digest, December 2015/January 2016 issue, excerpt from A Case Against the Clock by Tony Crabbe. OK, granted, this is taken out of context from Crabbe’s article, but this one paragraph seemed to resonate with my topic. Read the entire article if you like.
“Think about your past few weeks. All the moments you had of real insight or happiness came when focused your attention, with reckless abandon, into the moment. In maximizing our time, we rob our moments of their color”.
A Few Parting Quotes, Pictures, and Music
This is a good one, Quote of the Day from BrainyQuote.
Here are some mindfulness quotes.
I posed the question earlier, “is it popular?”. You’ll get a lot of hits if you Google “mindfulness”, but a few names, aside from JKZ, are Anderson Cooper (see my earlier blog on this topic), Goldie Hawn, Jon Favreau, Richard Gere, and Emma Watson.
Steely Dan: Deacon Blue
blazinbernie
Looking for a Rufous 
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