The Headspace Guide to: Mindfulness & Meditation

by Andy Puddicombe

find a way to cope with life, to deal with stress – in their work, their personal life, and in their own minds. They wanted to regain the sense of openness they remembered from childhood, that sense of appreciation in actually being alive. They weren’t looking for spiritual enlightenment, nor were they needing therapy. They just wanted to know how to ‘switch off’ when they got home from work, how to fall asleep at night, how to improve their relationships, how to feel less anxious, sad or angry. People wanted to know how to control their cravings, to give up their addictions, to get a bit more perspective on life. But most of all they wanted to know how to deal with that nagging feeling that all was not quite as it should be, or could be – that feeling that there must be more to life than this.

Often in life we get so caught up in the analysis, the dissection of every possible outcome, that we miss an opportunity altogether. Of course, some things require careful consideration, but the more we live mindfully, in the

moment, the more we start to get a sense of what feels right. Whether you think of it as a gut feeling, intuition, being guided, or just knowing for yourself that it’s the right thing to do, this can be an incredibly liberating discovery.

our entire existence is experienced through the mind. We depend on it for our sense of happiness and fulfilment in life and for positive relationships with others.

Meditation isn’t about becoming a different person, a new person, or even a better person. It’s about training in awareness and understanding how and why you think and feel the way you do, and getting a healthy sense of perspective in the process. It just so happens that when you do that, any changes you want to make in your life become that much more feasible.

Mindfulness means to be present, in the moment, undistracted. It implies resting the mind in its natural state of awareness, which is free of any bias or judgment.

So mindfulness means to be present. It means being ‘in the moment’, experiencing life directly as it unfolds, rather than being distracted, caught up and lost in thought. It’s not a contrived or temporary state of mind that you need to somehow create and maintain. On the contrary, it’s a way of stepping back and resting the mind in its natural state, free from the usual chaos.

Meditation is simply a technique to provide you with the optimum conditions for practising the skill of mindfulness.

If mindfulness is the ability to be present, to rest in the moment whatever you’re doing, and meditation is the best way of learning that skill, then ‘headspace’ could be considered the outcome.

It describes an underlying sense of peace, a feeling of fulfilment or unshakeable contentment, no matter what emotion might be in play at that time. Headspace is not a quality of mind dependent on surface emotions; this means it can be experienced just as clearly in periods of sadness or anger as it can in times of excitement and laughter.

Essentially it’s ‘being OK’ with whatever thoughts you’re experiencing or emotions you’re feeling.

when it comes to the way you think and feel about those situations, the starting point is to acknowledge that it’s the mind itself that defines your experience.

This is why training the mind is so important.

By changing the way in which you see the world, you effectively change...

By focusing less on your own worries and more on the potential happiness of others you actually create more headspace for yourself.

meditation, within a mindful context, was not about stopping thoughts and controlling the mind. It was a process

of giving up control, of stepping back, learning how to focus the attention in a passive way, while simply resting the mind in its own natural awareness.

it was a skill, an art, knowing how to step back and how not to get continually sucked into the realm of endless, unprodu...

thoughts were autonomous and how no amount of force could preven...

‘Happiness is just happiness,’ he went on, ‘no big deal. It comes and it goes. Sadness is just sadness, no big deal. It comes and it goes. If you can give up your desire to always experience pleasant things, at the same time as giving up your fear of experiencing unpleasant things, then you’ll have a quiet mind.’

‘When you experience pleasant sensations in your practice, I want you to imagine sharing those feelings with other people,’

‘It doesn’t matter whether it’s the pleasant sensation of a quiet mind, of a relaxed body or a comforting emotion; simply imagine you are giving it away, sharing it with your friends and family, the people you care about.’

if you find yourself sitting there and you feel very good, then maintain this attitude of wanting to share it with others.’

‘When you experience discomfort in your meditation, whether it’s the restlessness of a busy mind, physical tension in the body, or a challenging emotion, I want you to imagine it’s the discomfort of the people you care about. It’s as if in an act of extraordinary generosity, you are sitting with their discomfort so they don’t have to.’

One of the most important was that the emotion itself is often not the problem. It’s the way we react to it that causes the problem.

By stepping back and getting a little bit of perspective (something I could never have done without meditation) I was able to see the original emotion for what it was. And by simply being aware of it, it was as if it had its moment in the sun and was more willing to move on. So often we shut down when unpleasant feelings arise, we don’t want to feel them or be around them. But by reacting in this way we only give the emotion a greater sense of importance.

By learning to let emotions come and go, and because there’s this underlying sense of awareness and perspective, then no matter how difficult the feeling, there is always the sense that everything is OK, even if the emotion is very strong.

sometimes, the ‘idea’ of something can be very different from reality. I thought I felt very sad, but when I tried to locate that sadness, all I could find were these ever-changing thoughts and physical...

I just found thoughts and physical sensations that were colou...

Sometimes this gap between what we understand intellectually, and our actual experience of emotions in everyday life, can appear as an enormous chasm.

The way we feel is fundamental to our experience of life.

Emotions are the filter between ‘us’ and the ‘world’.

In the same way, the filter of emotion creates the illusion of how our world looks at any one time.

Traits are those emotions that seem to define a character.

‘States’ however refer to those fleeting emotions that come and go in everyday life.

they are the ‘ups and downs’ of life.

Sometimes our emotional states can become so ingrained, they start to feel like traits. It’s as if the emotion is so overwhelming that we can’t see past it.

And in these situations the emotion can even begin to define who we are. Depression is a good example of this. So while at times the two can feel inseparable, it’s useful to be aware of the difference.

it’s very difficult to separate thought and feeling. Do your thoughts define the way you feel? Or does the way you feel define your thoughts?

Mindfulness is the willingness to rest in that natural state of awareness, resisting the temptation to judge whatever emotion comes up, and therefore neither opposing or getting carried away with a feeling. Meditation is simply the exercise that is going to give you the best conditions to practise being mindful of these emotions. And headspace is the result of applying this approach. Headspace does not mean being free from emotions, but rather existing in a place where you are at ease with whatever emotion is present.

the objective here is headspace, a sense of ease with whatever emotion is present.

When approaching emotions through meditation, it’s not that we need to give the emotions more importance (they already receive quite enough attention); instead, we need to find a way to relate to them in a more skilful way. We need to find a way to be aware of our emotions, to experience, acknowledge and live with them, and yet not be at their mercy.

With the passing of time and with increased perspective, the experience of emotion can look very different.

It’s the nature of life for stuff to happen.

the way in which you relate to the feeling will enable you to let go of it more quickly and more easily.

When it comes to meditation, though, the goal and the journey are the same thing.

The idea of approaching meditation with a gentle curiosity seemed to me to imply a sense of soft, open and patient interest. It’s perhaps the way in which you might quietly crouch behind a tree while watching a wild animal. Because you’re so captivated and engaged, you’re 100 per cent focused on what you’re watching. You are aware of the immediacy of the moment, free from impatience, not wanting the animal to do something, but content to watch it just as it is.

If you can apply this sense of gentle curiosity, to your meditation and even everyday life, it will add something that is every bit as beneficial as it is unexpected.

All meditation,

relies on at least one of two essential components: