Turning our Attention Towards our Experience
A reflection on Mindfulness by Petra Elsmore
“Relating to the whole of our lives mindfully – to both our inward and our outward experiences – is a profoundly positive and practical alternative to the driven, automatic pilot mode in which we operate most of the time without even knowing it.” (Myla & Jon Kabat- Zinn, Everyday Blessings, Hyperion, New York, 1997, p.20-21)
Myla and Jon Kabat-Zinn remind us in the above book, that we have the choice to bring more attention and intentionality to our lives and have the potential to chart or own paths. As they say, ‘new and important doors in our own minds can open just by entertaining the possibility that there are alternative ways of perceiving situations and that we may have more options open to us in any moment than we realize’.
Mindfulness can have a profound impact on our lives and the way we relate to our experiences, to ourselves and the world.
It enables us to stop and change a gear in our lives, to consider our ways of being in the world and ways of being with ourselves and make choices about how to respond to our experiences and situations in which we find ourselves.
Doing and Being Modes of the Mind
It may be helpful to understand the way we react to situations and the way we respond by thinking of ‘doing’ and ‘being’ modes of mind,
Our ‘doing’ mode for example helps our minds to focus on achieving goals, completing tasks, moving from one job to the next.
Our ‘being’ mode on the other hand enables us to notice the details of our experience and explore them as they are without trying to change anything or achieve anything else.
Example: When swimming, in the doing mode we may choose to count the lengths which we have swum already and concentrate on the goal we set to ourselves, the reasons behind swimming etc.. If in the being mode, we might just connect with the experience of moving in the water, noticing the feeling of the water on our body and any other sensations we might experience in our body as we swim, we may notice what is going on around us, the sounds, or what we could see as we swim.
Another example, think about the last time you were walking in the park. What was going through your mind? Were you thinking about your day? Were you thinking about the tasks that you had still ahead of you? Or were you concentrating on the walk and looking around and noticing what you could see and hear and how you felt at that time? Where you in the ‘doing’ mode or in the ‘being’ mode?
We often move from one to the other, at some time the ‘doing’ mode may dominate at others we are able to be with our experience. Different situation may need different mode of mind; a walk in the park is better enjoyed if we are able to notice the experience of walking there, on the other hand, an important meeting requires from us the abilities which are enabled through the ‘doing’ mode. Mindfulness practice allows us to switch to the mode most suited to the task.
Choosing a response to experience.
“As we learn to be mindful, we are giving ourselves the choice to place our focus of attention where we want it to be.” (The Mindfulness Breakthrough by Sarah Silverton,Watkins New York, p33)
Through mindfulness practice we cultivate the ability to be with our experiences as they unfold moment by moment and to accept them as they are. Accepting is not about being passive rather it is allowing ourselves to be patient and gentle with our experience, holding it until we can see clearly what that experience truly is about.
“Mindfulness practice is also about learning to respond to what we find. Choice becomes available when we can see our experience clearly and, based on this information, make an informed decision about how to respond most appropriately”. (Sarah Silverton, p.41)