Mindfulness meditation

Also called “mindfulness”, mindfulness meditation has experienced a real rise in Western countries in recent years.

Mindfulness meditation; what is this ?

Meditation is an ancient mental or spiritual practice whose vestiges can be found for thousands of years in the heart of different cultures; it is found in particular in the practice of Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism or Taoism. Mindfulness meditation has the particularity of focusing your attention fully on the present moment. We live in a society that encourages us to live a mile an hour and focus our attention on a very large number of things at the same time which often belong to the past or the future. This frantic race does not leave us time to breathe and leads to many individuals harmful physical and psychological consequences that are reflected in many ways. Mindfulness meditation is a method that aims to teach us how to take a break from this infernal daily rhythm by anchoring ourselves totally in the present moment. It’s about becoming fully aware of the current moment through listening to your whole body and all your feelings and thus living intensely every second without trying to control it.

How to practice mindfulness meditation?

You can meditate anywhere and anytime. It is often recommended to meditate in a quiet place, at a time when you will not be disturbed and in a comfortable position for practical reasons, but there are really no rules except those which you impose on yourself. You can meditate standing as well as sitting, indoors or outdoors, alone in a monastery or in the midst of a crowd; the main thing is to find the situation that suits you the most, in which you feel the most comfortable, and that is what is important. The idea of ​​mindfulness meditation is to focus your attention on a specific physical or spiritual object such as your own breath or a member of your body, for example, and then gradually become aware of what the object of your attention is. generates in you. At first you will probably feel like you are too much in the mind with a constant stream of thoughts that seem to distract you from your mindfulness meditation; this is completely normal at first and you should not try to control or stop this flow of thoughts in any way; it is by focusing your attention on what you cannot do that you are only accentuating what you perceive as deconcentration. On the contrary, relax fully and accept the elements that you cannot modulate; this is how you will manage to let go. Note that like any practice, mindfulness meditation requires regular training.