The Headspace Guide to: Mindfulness & Meditation

by Andy Puddicombe

www.getsomeheadspace.com/headspace-book/get-some-headspace

my headace website

Although meditation is all about letting go, keeping a diary when you’re starting out can really make a difference.

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.

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

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

And as long as there’s resistance, there’s no room for acceptance. And as long as we don’t have acceptance, there’s no way of having a peaceful mind.’

‘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.’

Remember, if you are focusing on a pleasant sensation try gently to maintain the attitude of sharing it with others as you focus on it. Equally, if you’re resting your attention on an unpleasant feeling, then try to lightly maintain the attitude of experiencing it or looking after it for someone you care about.

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

And in these situations the emotion can even begin to define who we are. Depression is a good example of this.

All meditation, no matter which culture or tradition it comes from, how complicated it might appear, or what its purpose might be, relies on at least one of two essential components: concentration (usually the calming aspect) and clarity (usually the insight aspect).

The thing to remember about clarity is that what needs to become clear, will naturally become clear.

You don’t have to think as far ahead as the other side of the piece of paper, but just a few millimetres to reach the next dot. All of a sudden it’s not so difficult to draw a straight line.

How many of us live our lives in this way? Swept away by memories of the past and plans for the future. So preoccupied with thinking that we’re completely unaware of what’s actually taking place right now, oblivious to life unfolding around us.

It can sometimes feel as though we’re so busy remembering, planning and analysing life, that we forget to experience life – as it actually is, rather than how we think it should be.

This may feel counterintuitive at first, but there’s method to the madness. In moving closer to it, in fully experiencing it and even encouraging it, there’s a complete shift in the usual, habitual dynamic and very often the

By adopting a physical posture that reflects the qualities of mind you’d like to develop, it will make it that much easier to do so.

With that in mind, the journey to acceptance is about discovering what we need to let go of, rather than what we need to start doing.