Mindfulness: a foundational skill

Rob Koehl LPC

Mindfulness 

Change your focus, change your life, is it really that simple? Mindfulness is one of the great foundational skills in treating the stress from trauma and attachment trauma, anxiety and depression. Most folks think that mindfulness is about being peaceful and calm, sitting cross legged and making groovy shapes with your hands. Or leaving your body and traversing the cosmos.

The use of mindfulness in psychotherapy is not necessarily to relax. Relaxation is just a positive side effect, as the mind starts to settle from time to time. Increasing awareness,  focus,  and staying in the present moment without judgement or attachment is where the long-term payoff come from. 

Our minds are wonderful tools. Planning ahead and learning from the past, has given humans many of the advancements that we enjoy today. Without awareness, the unfocused mind can cause a lot of suffering, too. Mindfulness is about being able to focus on thoughts when they are helpful and change the focus when they are not. 

The present moment, may be the only time that really exists and our perception may still be limited. The pictures and voices in our head from the past or our imagination or analysis of the future, may seem real. But, ask any crime scene investigator who interviews people after an incident. Each person comes up with a different perception of what happened. Yes, the mind may be wonderful threat predicting software. The mind is wired for survival, not happiness. Fully being here now seems to corelate to greater feelings of happiness. Just accepting and engaging in each moment as it is.  

We have all of these wonderful ideas about how the world, work, family and things should be. We get attached to these beliefs and we judge what does not fit the images that we hold in our minds. Mindfulness is about recognizing these images and beliefs that we hold in our minds as we observe the world, work, family and things as they exist. Yep, that is about it- observing the world as it is without holding on too tight or judging because it does not fit the way that my momma said that it should be.

It takes practice, and it is only a practice. Downloading an app. setting time for formal practice, or just checking in throughout the day, "where am I and where is my mind?" can be a great start. Mindfulness is a foundational skill and it can lead to many great things.