By Dr. Nitesh Dhawan, Public Servant, Author and Educator
India is at the 139th position in Global Happiness Index that poorly reflects on our quality of life at large. So often, we feel like life is pulling us in so many directions making it hard for us to take care of us both physically and mentally. The result is stress, anxiety and loss of harmony within and outside. Harvard University has recently started a course on Happiness Management and demand for such courses is rising in the wake of post-pandemic effect on our overall well-being. Delhi government has also taken initiatives in this regard and many more Universities and colleges are taking steps to teach skills for leading a balanced life.So, we will try to understand mindfulness by putting the concept in right perspective, implications of losing mindfulness, what exactly mindfulness means, learning the techniques and its impact on overall well-being.
While understanding mindfulness, it is important to know the nature of mind. Mind remains in three states. It is usually engrossed in planning for the future, thinking about the next goal and hopeful for new possibilities in life. At other times, it is lost in the memories, pleasant or unpleasant, with regrets of the past or disturbed by guilt. All this makes it difficult for a mind to exist in the present moment. It has the natural tendency to overthink and indulge in over-imagination about situations that are not close to reality.The present demands of today’s modern life require one to be efficient in multi-tasking as we are living in an aspirational society with high expectations and have diversified roles to fulfil. In such situation, we tend to lose focus of here and now. It leads to a disconnect with inner self and causes anxiety, stress and unhealthy emotional state. Sometimes, we behave unknowingly in a certain manner with an uncontrolled reactive emotional response.
There are serious repercussions of losing mindfulness on the overall well-being of an individual. The implications pertain to –
- Behaviour is not in sync with the inner self
- Lack of self-awareness about our bodily and emotional needs
- Fail to enjoy what we do
- Mood instability
- Overthinking
- The cluttered mind
- Anxiety, stress and worries
The mindfulness is the practice that originated from Buddhism which basically means a practice of purposefully focusing our attention on the present moment and accepting it without any judgment. It emphasizes upon concentrating our thought process on here and now without indulging in its pros and cons. It teaches us to be an impartial observer with increased objectivity. It creates self-awareness about one’s body, thought process and one’s emotions i.e., that is how we feel and how we think.
There are certain techniques through which mindfulness can be learned and experienced.Breathing is a vital element because it connects body and mind as well as deeply affects the emotions. The moment our internal state changes, so is the breathing pattern. So, to regulate our emotional state we need to direct our attention process to breathing by practicing Pranayam or simply deep breathing involving inhaling and exhaling components. It also helps in controlling our random thoughts and increases our consciousness towards ourself.
After this, one should orient towards each part of one’s body in gradual succession from head to toe and subtle body sensations. The basic idea is to make oneself more aware of delicate bodily changes and vibrations. Then comes the noticing of sensory responses relating to sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. In day-to-day lives, we usually never take note of these sensory experiences. Through deliberately focusing upon these corporeal changes, one starts to gain enriching experiences of joy with more satisfaction in each of the activity. This could be done by attending to small activities like eating, drinking, walking, playing and touching by slowing down a bit and self-observing in a present situation. There should be no resistance to any of the thought or emotion one is going through. The other significant thing to do is switching over to single-tasking with more devotion. This amplifies the quality of work that we do and gives us a sense of fulfilment. Eventually when one moves toward multitasking based on environmental pressures, there is more clarity and commitment even in that situation. As Bhagwat Gita puts it- it is the sakshi bhavathat makes us free from all pain and pleasure and helps us to attain a balanced state of mind which becomes the source of ultimate joy and bliss.
So, we can say that mindfulness integrates and synchronizes our body, mind and soul to create peace and inner harmony. It improves our mental health and emotional intelligence which keeps us level-headed and facilitates in self-regulation of behaviour. It controls stress, anxiety and over-thinking which leads to overall well-being of a person.
You can also watch Mindful our educational videos’ on mindfulness
