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Be
Mindful
Mindfulness is a
calm, attentive awareness
of the situation at hand. It is a state of active,
open attention of present
events—externally and internally. Assuming a
nonjudgmental attitude, take in
the words the authoritative person is saying, as well
as expressions, tone of
voice—like a mental snapshot. Simultaneously, notice
your thoughts and feelings
about the events, without judging them good or bad. Mindfulness
involves listening to and thoughtfully considering
what a person presenting you
with information says, taking in their bias,
assumptions, inferences and fallacies
as part of the “Gestalt”, without responding
emotionally. Mindfulness is a
presence of mind, attention, noticing—taking in the
whole of the speaker’s
message—a grocking. “Humm, here’s where he’s coming
from.” The other side of
mindfulness is awareness of your own thoughts and
feelings about what is going
on. Learning to observe your reactions, from afar,
dispassionately, helps you
to be more clear-headed in your responses, rather than
emotional, especially
when the speaker’s views grade upon you, violating
your values or offend you. Responding
reactively generally leaves you looking foolish, or
worse. Practice
Mindfulness While meditation
is the traditional way to achieve mindfulness, which
does take a commitment and
time, you can practice mindfulness any place, even
right now, through attentive
deep breathing. Simply do what you usually do while
focusing your attention on
your breathing. Breathe in through your nose and out
through your mouth. When
breathing in draw the air all the way down to the
bottom of your belly. Focus
on the sound and rhythm of your breath. Just notice
your breathing. Doing this
a few times a day will develop your mindfulness. As your skill
builds, practice mindfulness in various settings.
Don’t worry. No one will
know. For example, you might practice mindfulness
while on the phone with a
client. Simply carry on the conversation as you
normally would—while paying
attention. Use a broad type of attention that takes in
everything about your
client’s voice and presentation, as well as the
content. Dispassionately note
verbal hesitations, mumbles, throat-clearing. Don’t
make judgments or
conclusions. Just
notice. Simultaneously
notice your thoughts, feelings, and
sensations—dispassionately. Just practice being
attentive while taking it all in. Thinking is Driven by Questions Thinking
is driven by questions, not answers. Every
intellectual field is born out of a
cluster of questions to which answers are needed. Had
no questions been asked
by those who laid the foundation for a field —
for example, physics or biology —
the field would never have been developed. We define
tasks, express problems and delineate issues with
questions. Answers signal an
end point, which stops thought, except when an answer
generates further
questions. Timothy Leary
said “to think for
yourself you must question authority”. To
think, you must
question. To think through or rethink anything, you
must ask questions that
stimulate thought. The quality of your questions
determines the quality of your
thinking. Thinking
begins within some content when questions are
generated. No questions equals no
understanding. To engage in thinking through your
content you must stimulate
your thinking with questions that lead to further
questions. |