Building present-moment awareness - a deeper insight on mindfulness

​Mindfulness is a topic I have explored, practiced, facilitated in groups, and integrated into my coaching over the past 15 years.

Recently, I’ve had a deeper realization around mindfulness that I would like to share with you.

Many view mindfulness as being an intentional practice where you tune into your senses, connecting without judgment with what you’re experiencing in the moment.

That's definitely part of it.

Becoming present, and giving your full attention to what you're experiencing through your senses, is a form of mindfulness that can be integrated into everyday activities, like brushing your teeth, watering your plants, showering, walking, etc.

Being fully in the present moment, and tapped into what we're seeing, feeling, tasting, hearing, and smelling helps us to feel more connected to the world around and within us, helping to cultivate a sense of peace.

Mindfulness, to me, goes much deeper than connecting to your senses. Even more powerful is becoming aware of your inner experience - your thinking, emotions, core beliefs, etc. that are driving your behaviors and overall experience of life.

I've often shared the quote above: "The path isn't a straight line; it's a spiral. You continually come back to things you thought you understood and see deeper truths."

I am grateful to have had an experience that took me deeper into the seeing the truth of just how foundational the practice of mindfulness really is.

I mentioned that I recently reached a powerful insight; here's what happened.

After an emotionally challenging experience of helping out my parents, who were both unwell at the time, I returned to my place alone.

I had been home for about an hour when I had an “experience”. I had been crying on and off and thinking about how challenging it must be for them to navigate everything that comes with the aging process.

​I had felt flooded with fear of the unknown.

​But in that moment, a “knowing” rushed through my body, with a message. And that message was, “It’s not happening right now!”

It literally felt like time stopped in that moment. I realized that I was still living in that moment with my parents, even though time had passed, and I was no longer in their presence.

I saw in that moment that I had been pulling forward the experience I was having hours earlier into my present moment, allowing it to take over my thinking, emotions, and behaviors.

​I had gotten lost in a STORY about what was happening.

When I reflected back, ​I realized that my mind was making assumptions about how they “must” be feeling. There were lots of “what-ifs” as my mind started guessing at what may happen next.

Again, it was a story my mind was telling me and even though it felt real and convincing, it wasn't actually true.

​“It’s Not Happening Right Now!” Having that insight roar into my mind yanked me out of the story and allowed me to come out of autopilot and into present-moment awareness.

It was almost like a switch had been flipped and all the stories – my thinking – went quiet.

​I took a deep breath and found my body, here in my calm and safe home. There was music playing, which I had been unaware of moments before, when I was living in my head. I looked around me, taking in my surroundings and then looking out the window at the world outside.

Again, that insight, “It’s not happening right now”. I saw it as mindfulness on a much deeper level than I had previously been considering.

​I was mindful of what my MIND was doing as it created my present-moment experience of life.

As I was having these realizations, I watched as my thinking tried to jump in, telling me it was selfish to "be okay" when my parents were struggling. But because awareness was also flooding in and I was AWAKE, I was able to see it for what it was - old, unhelpful programming.

​Present-moment Me was able to see that in no way is it helpful to anyone to maintain feelings of fear, grief, and sadness – to extend those emotions beyond what is natural and necessary.

​I asked myself, “Is it helpful to pity, to worry, to wish for different? No. It is a natural, normal part of life.

​What is helpful is to feel your emotions as they surge through you, in whatever situation or environment you’re in. The key is to realize that you don’t have to maintain them with your thinking and can let them pass.

​It is healthy to fully feel difficult emotions – sadness absolutely and undeniably has it’s place. But to get taken over by, tunnel visioned, worried, and sad in moments when there is no reason to shifts it into being unhealthy.

The energy of emotion is meant to be experienced, fully + completely.

But then, it’s meant to pass, as we move into the next moment, the next experience, and the next emotion.

When we keep what we’re feeling alive with what we’re thinking, the emotion gets stored within, where the mind will pull it back up again + again when there’s no need or benefit to do so.

With an intention to be present in each moment, noticing when you've gotten hooked by the stories in your mind, you get to experience the peace that is here NOW, instead of getting lost in the pain that often comes from your thinking.

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Learn more about Bobbi Beuree, Nova Scotia- based Coach + Facilitator