Mindfulness 24/7

[u0362565]

Hi all,

I'm fairly new to mindfulness and i understand the concept of being in the moment and not dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. Past and especially thoughts about the future seem to be a common source of stress. Practicing mindfulness usually means to take some time out of your day to be mindful and perhaps for 10-20mins this isn't too difficult, but i would have thought to truly reduce stress, 20mins a day of less stressful thought vs 23hrs:40mins normal thought doesn't add up. Is it possible to be mindful 24hrs a day (excluding sleep obviously)? I see a problem with this and perhaps i'm taking the concept too literally, sometimes you have to think about the future, i.e. when particular stressful events are looming-an interview, exam or presentation for example. If you stayed in the moment and didn't think forward and plan for the event then you'd fail through lack of preparation. How can you be mindful if you have to look to the future?

[JonW]

Hi u0362565.
Welcome to the forum.
Formal meditation is at the heart of mindfulness. In meditation we learn that it is possible to be less attached to thoughts and feelings. We are able to watch them come and go.
With time and practice we learn to embody that practice in our everyday life. That doesn't mean that we have to strive to be mindful 24/7. It's a lot more subtle than that.
One way of looking at it is that every moment becomes an invitation to be mindful. In other words we catch ourselves when we find ourselves ruminating on the past or worrying unnecessarily about the future.
It doesn't mean that we stop making plans in our lives or stop preparing for events like job interviews and meetings. The thought "I have a meeting on Tuesday, I need to prepare for it" is a pretty useful thought and it's worth acting on.
On the other hand, there are plenty of thoughts about the future that arise from worry and fear. These thoughts can be so powerful that, when we have the thought, it's as though we're actually experiencing the catastrophe. Whereas it's only a thought - it's mere speculation. It is these kinds of thoughts that bring an awful lot of suffering. It is these thoughts that we learn to be mindful about.
With time and practice we learn to be discerning about thoughts. Some are worth acting on. Most are mental chatter that serve no purpose other than to make us feel fearful.
I hope this is helpful in some way.
Please feel free to ask any other questions you have and to join any of the numerous conversation threads on this forum.
We're a friendly bunch here and will always endeavour to help out if we're able.
All good things,
Jon, Hove

[u0362565]

Hi jon,

Thanks for that, it does make it clearer for me. In that case, i think the difficult thing is to be able to put aside a thought that could cause stress before it has a physical effect on you. Sometimes i realise too late.

cheers

[FeeHutch]

Hello and welcome

[girlwithguitar]

Hi,

If I can add something else that may be helpful..

I listen to a podcast by Swami Jnaneshvara. In one of his talks, he was talking about false identities. He said that when you are meditating even for just five minutes, you are closer to who you really are in that five minutes than you are for the other 23h and 55 min of the day. So when you begin to think in those other times 'I am busy' or 'I am frazzled' or 'my mind is so noisy' you can remember who you are in the stillness. To not let the self talk become your identity.

I think that part of being mindful is allowing the mindfulness experience to be transferred to other areas of your life. For me, I have found that is less about worrying about the past or the future but not allowing those events to define me. When I don't allow those events to define me, I worry less. So I take that knowing of who I am in the stillness and I can act out of that knowledge rather than simply responding franticly to what is happening around me.

[JonW]

Great response, girlwithguitar . That's mindfulness in motion.
Happy New Year!
Cheers,
Jon

[piedwagtail91]

mindfulness helps you sort out the wheat from the chaff, the thoughts/plans for the future that do need to be considered and the mental background chatter than can be let go of.
your formal practice develops that skill.
it's not so much of being mindful 24 hours a day, but for me it sort of becomes obvious when i'm not mindful, when i'm starting to go along with 'unwanted' thoughts and letting them give me problems when i could just let them go.