The question is____What Exactly Is Mindfulness?
At its most basic level, mindfulness is being aware of what’s happening, as it happens. It means that you notice the workings of your mind in the present time. If you are practicing mindfulness, you deliberately direct your attention into the present and focus your conscious mind in the moment. You could call t his being deliberately focused. Your focus has direction. Being present (mindful) includes your mind, body, about the environment you are in.
Research has shown us that most of our waking lives we’re doing one thing and focusing on something else. Is this what we dub multitasking?” Mothers often feel like they are. It would seem to me that mothers are being mindful for sure! However, the article I was reading said that if we are thinking of something else we are not being mindful. I recall a high school counselor telling me how not to do this, as I was thinking of more than two other things. She gave a name for it, but I do not recall it. The lesson was to focus on just one thing at a time. The results were looking wishy-washy and like you were not paying attention. It means sucking yourself “back in.”
Mindfulness is something we keep present for. It is having focus, and practicing it so it is a habit. The problem is when it is underdeveloped. To not apply mindfulness, leaves us caught up in thoughts that divert us. I like what the article said about mindfulness when it said, “Mindfulness can be both a flashlight and vacuum cleaner.” This is a good way to think of mindfulness. The thought is that mindfulness or rather being mindful illuminates our “in the moment experience” so we can see beyond our “internal biases and assumptions.” Think about these. Such things keep us locked into a way of thinking. But what if we remade that couple of sentences we keep telling ourselves? Would that change the focus? Likely yes. The goal or focus needs to be on how we live fully. Do we see things clearly or do we sort of going with something because it seems easier?
Mindfulness Changes Your Brain
I also read: “In terms of using your physical brain, mindfulness asks that you deliberately shift control of your thoughts and actions from your limbic system.” This is where your emotions, your fear-driven part of your brain is. It’s the part of the brain that is conscious awareness. Where is it? It’s in your frontal lobe. The frontal lobe is pretty much your higher-level self. It is where we hold our humanness. This is interesting.
Mindfulness repeats the activities of the thinking brain. When something we do is positive for example we take note of it and it is reinforced.
It is because of “neuroplasticity”, the two regions become more connected and pathways become established in our brains. Such pathways via neuroplasticity allow our frontal lobe more control over our limbic system. With regular mindfulness, the frontal lobe is activated and motivated to become the go-to place for our emotional responses. This is where the mind becomes calmer, does not react to things as quickly, is not as anxious, and we bounce back more easily from things that affront us.
For example, being mindful improves anxiety, PSSD, bipolar, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. It is successful with depression and substance abuse.
My interest is to learn if it is being mindful to create Shibui Found Image Art when I break it down. There is a need to focus, and this is having awareness and problem-solving. These are two components I know of. Shibui involves the pleasure center, it affects people mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually as is the case with forms of art. I shall right across the concrete info soon. I think it is coming in the book I ordered as research.
Mindfulness Is Self-Directed Neuroplasticity
You can encourage neuroplasticity in your own life in two different ways, internally and externally. Mindfulness is one internal way to do that. When you are mindful, you’re intentionally guiding your brain activity, awareness, and attention. Getting into the driver’s seat by directing where you place your attention on what you need to is being mindful. Being mindful can bring calm to an anxious mind jumping around from one worrisome thought to another. Bringing your attention back into the present alters the part of your brain in control. It immediately stops your brain from ruminating about painful memories or panicking about the future. When thoughts come up acknowledge them as being thoughts but pay attention to the fact they are just thoughts. And then change them up by thinking of the things you want to focus on. Learn new things, take your mind away from the thoughts that bring you elsewhere, and often to where you don’t want to go.
Your subconscious brain largely determines your happiness, baseline mood, how you respond to the world, how you interact in relationships. It has to do with what you think of and how you talk to yourself. The subconscious material is primarily made up of implicit memories from your childhood and past — This may be, and often is old wounds or painful past experiences. These pull us out of being present. And this subconscious chatter “carves in stone the default brain patterns” we hang onto and pull up! More to the point it is these things that we are allowing the mind to determine our happiness. The fact is that the mind being this way can contribute to psychological disorders like anxiety, depression, and PTSD. In order to change your baseline subconscious chatter, you have to change your brain’s default pattern of operation. Luckily, you already have everything you need to do that. Research shows self-directed neuroplasticity ( changing the brain) can make positive changes in your brain and mental health. And you can mold your brain with mindfulness.
Anisette Studios & Shibui Fine Arts 