Mindfulness

BEING AWARE

Look around you. How many people are aware of their surroundings? Who's switched on & savvy and who's present in the moment? Not many. And that's because most people are somewhere else while they go about their day. The way you can tell is to look people in the face. They should be able to pick up your gaze even with only their peripheral vision, but a lot of people will not even see you looking at them if you're directly in their field of vision. These are life's sleepwalkers. 

A lot of the time, we slip into our autopilot mode - the threat of danger is low and we either switch off completely or we allow this time to think of banal thoughts, like what's for dinner etc. Sure, having a nice tea is good but why not keep your mind primed and really focus on making your thoughts more effective instead? I found some great techniques for developing your situational awareness which will help you to remember places, people and events - boost memory and elevate levels of consciousness. I'm already realising how important meditation is for setting up your mind after waking and before sleeping - and these extra techniques should help for memory retention.

Practicing a little bit of self-awareness every day is great for improving observation of the world around us. What I'd also like to do at some point in the near future, is dig deeper to really get to know myself by taking a very powerful course at a silent retreat. The participants stay still and silent for 10 days and in this time discover many things about themselves. It's called Vipassana meditation and there are centres all around the world. The centres, funded by donations only, are becoming very popular as more people choose to learn about themselves, so advance booking at one of these centres is often required. 

Being a very active person - my mind races all over the place, so, Very likely, it is going to be tough for me to remain quiet and meditate for so many hours but I've read about people getting some amazing results by stripping away all the noise and getting to know who they truly are.