As always, I’m looking for answers to the question “What is mindfulness?” so that my readers can understand. Here is a truly lovely quote about mindfulness that I discovered recently. The author is MJ and you can visit her at www.mydbtlife.com, where she offers a free weekly blog dedicated to the teaching of DBT.
“The basic concept of mindfulness is that in order for us to open up options for ourselves when we are suffering, we need to be fully aware of the circumstances surrounding that suffering. These circumstances may appear to be self-evident. However, there are so many things going on with us when our suffering is at its greatest. Going on inside and outside. Our environment has a lot of factors that are weighing in on our level of suffering.
Believe it or not, when we are not suffering, most of us are only aware of a fraction of all that there is to be aware of within us or around us. When we are suffering our awareness shrinks even more. There are options for every action, effective or ineffective. Options to speak, think, feel, or behave. These options are limited if we are not aware of everything that contributed to what we are experiencing. To bring about a self-awareness that will improve our chances of effective choices, we need to practice being in the moment we are in, for what that moment truly is.”