I attended just a one-day seminar on the topic “Mindfulness” because the company where I worked told us that this will help us to be more productive at work. As far as I can remember, it was a good and informative lecture on this new topic about mindfulness. It was interesting although the speaker was not able to expound much in the PowerPoint presentation. I just remember that it was all about being aware of what is going on around you and not reacting too much about a situation you are faced with.
I researched more about this particular topic, I learned more about it. I think many of us are not mindful of what’s going on around us. If you observe people on the street, in restaurants, although these days because of the pandemic, few people go out and stay in restaurants or fast food because we have to follow social distancing.
You can see around people are engrossed with their cell phones although with friends, seemingly oblivious of the things happening around them. And if you ask one of them what is going on around you, they will possibly answer. “I don’t know.” They can’t even tell the name of the person they talked to before going to the restaurant. And this is what is called “mindlessness.” or not being aware of the present or recent situation because the mind is preoccupied with many things. It’s like information overload.
Mindfulness Meaning Simplified
According to a health journal published online, “Mindfulness” has been defined as ‘awareness of present experience and accepting this situation.” The acceptance of the present situation is, aside from being aware of it, is to accept it whether it is good or bad. As we live through happy experiences, we also meet painful experiences which we should be aware of and accept the situation as it is, with the less negative reaction so that we will be able to experience less emotional suffering and our “sense of well-being increases” (Germer, C. InsightJournal). Mindfulness, according to the author, is a practice or something that we can learn so that we could be less emotional about any situation that comes our way.
The opposite of mindfulness is mindlessness. It is unawareness and not seeing the real situation as it is because we are more preoccupied thinking about many situations that happened to us in the past or the recent past. The journal discussed examples of being mindless such as the following
● Rushing through activities without giving attention to them
● Breaking or spilling things because of not being careful, inattentive, or thinking of other things.
● Slight feelings of physical tension or discomfort unnoticed.
● Being forgetful of a person’s name almost as soon as we’ve heard it.
● Finding ourselves busy with our future or our past.
● Having snacks without being aware of eating
If you are guilty of one or several experiences as aforementioned, you are mindless as I am, too. Being so busy thinking about things on our minds, we forget that we are in a different situation at the present moment. Sometimes we react too much or involve ourselves in a more emotional reaction when bad things go wrong.
Well, we can say it is natural to react when your beloved dog dies. Because of our deep relationship with our pets, we react sometimes violently. And this is the essence of mindfulness, to accept the situations as they come and learn to accept them as they are because there is nothing to do about it. We are not always in control. We have to learn to accept things as they are to preserve our emotional wellbeing, mental and physical as well.
Being Mindful and Doing Exercise
There are claims and research findings that mindfulness and physical exercise go hand and hand. What we know about physical exercise is that it makes us physically fit and healthy when we do it regularly. For example, we exercise every morning three times a week for 30 minutes before we go to work or before we do our household chores. For the young and not so young, jogging, biking, going to the gym, swimming is recommended. For the seniors, brisk walking can be as good as jogging. Light physical exercise when done regularly will surely make you physically fit.
The good thing about exercising is that we, in a way, practice mindfulness. When for example, we do brisk walking, we generally focus on walking and not thinking much about what we should do next or what we did recently. We are so engrossed with our health regimen and aware of the present situation that we are exercising. That’s all. And when we are mindful, we accept things as they are. We know the situation; we know we met our neighbor during brisk walking and we know we greeted them “Hello”.
FlexiSpot on the Spot
Nowadays as we are still experiencing the pandemic, we almost have to stay at home and do most of our work within the four walls of our house. Exercising can be much fun as going out to exercise. Several physical fitness equipment stores offer a variety of them that will surely suit your needs. One of the best companies to visit is Flexispot. You will find a wide range of products such as standing desks, ergonomic chairs, ergonomic gaming tables and chairs, and other accessories that will boost your healthy lifestyle and at the same time increase your work productivity.
One of the outstanding products that are available in the AB Foldable Rowing LCL. If you’re a homebody, this is a perfect choice for workouts to strengthen your muscles in your upper and lower body. It is a powerful workout machine with an LCD to check on your calories, total time, and scan. The rowing mode level has 2 adjustable resistance levels and has a double dynamic handle for more exercises. It is a full pact workout buddy that is perfectly right for you.
Be sure to check FlexiSpot out for more exciting products, Exercise and be mindful. Enjoy your life as it is.
