Why isn't mindfulness easy?

[beherenow.space]

Mindfulness sounds easy, really easy. It's quite hard to say what mindfulness is without it sounding rather simplistic; it almost sounds as if you are not really describing anything at all.

Yet it is near impossible to do actually do perfectly, to be 100% present and aware in each moment. But why should it be so hard to do?

One reason is habit: we habitually invest a lot of time and energy in thinking about the past, the future, other places, people and events. This lifelong habit makes it difficult to let go and just be with the present moment.

But if that was all that was stopping us being totally in the now, just a bit of concerted effort and regular practise would sort that out after a while. Something else is holding us back from being completely and wholeheartedly right here.

In one word it would best be summed up as fear. We have a fear of being present because we have learnt that being here can be a scary and unpredictable place to be. We absent ourselves through our thoughts as a means of escaping the pressures and threats of living in the world.

So mindfulness takes bravery and courage to do something that at some level we are fearful of doing. Knowing this, when we sit for a mindfulness meditation we can watch out for any signs of this fear emerging, maybe as restlessness or distracting negative thoughts.

If we can then get in touch with the underlying feeling and sit with it without judgment and without either encouraging or diminishing the sensations that come with it, we then enable ourselves to be more deeply present with ourselves, our reactions and our world and to become free of the fear that keeps us from living fully and freely.

Stephen

[Peter]

Thanks for your insights Stephen,
But I don't agree with your conclusion. I don't think that the reason is that we are afraid of the present moment and what it may bring. I believe it has everything to do with survival. We've become such a 'successful' species because we learn from our past and anticipate the future. Our minds have evolved to facilitate that.
Peter

[beherenow.space]

Hi Peter
That's a more positive interpretation :-)
Stephen

[fgabriel]

Actually I think that mindfulness is pretty easy after you tackle these initial and failed attemps in the beggining. It's just something to increase your perception about everything and your perception about yourself while a human being in this transitory life.
Maybe this is just too simple yet quite powerful to try to describe in words.
Just accepting that today you don't feel fine, or that you are anxious about everything, makes your mind quiet. Give a name and a face to your struggles and make them lose their power over you.