Rushing to the airport, half-way there you realise you can’t remember if you’ve locked the front door. If only you had been less tense and more mindful at the time of departure, this nagging doubt would not have arisen. Sucked in as we are into the hectic pace of modern routine, we are constantly busy, oftentimes with nothing.

We have forgotten to be mindful. Mindfulness, a concept introduced by Buddhist monks, is just what the doctor ordered to get some sanity back in our existence. Mindfulness is neither rocket science nor some kind of philosophical abstraction. At a very basic level, it means just what the word purports — being keenly aware, being truly alive, being acutely conscious of everything we do and say, being totally present in the here and now.
Given the benefits that mindfulness confers, it is worth practising it every minute of our lives and making it a habit. Take in the sights and sounds of daybreak, the birds chirping, the odd traffic noise, the veil of darkness lifting. As you sip your morning tea or coffee, take in the aroma, dwell on the flavour, feel the warmth of the hot beverage on your tongue and swirl it around in your mouth and drink each mouthful consciously.
When you do your stretches or yoga, feeeeel every stretch, hold it, be aware of the points where your body feels tight and slowly feel the muscles loosening and limbering up for the day ahead as you co-ordinate every movement with each breath you take.
When you talk to someone, listen actively and listen intently, don’t rush in to complete their sentences. Believe me, you will learn a lot more about the person that away. Even with an activity as routine as taking a shower, be aware of the lather of the soap against your body and the feel of the water running against your skin, cleansing the body and washing away the grime and troubles too.
Sitting down to a meal with the family? Give it your all — the food, the conversation, and the people around. As Thich Nhat Hanh says in his book, The Miracle of Mindfulness, “Whatever the tasks, do them slowly and with ease, in mindfulness. Don’t do any task in order to get it over with. Resolve to do each job in a relaxed way with all your attention. Enjoy and be one with your work.” As you evolve, you can take mindful living to the next level. Through the Anapanasati Sutra, the Buddha teaches us how to use the breath to achieve mindfulness.
Studies conducted by the Massachusetts General Hospital show that participants in a ‘Mindfulness’ meditation programme that focused on non-judgemental awareness of sensations, feelings and state of mind, showed a lot of positive changes, including increased grey-matter density in the hippocampus, which is known to be important in learning processes and memory and in structures associated with self-awareness, compassion and introspection. There was also a reduction in stress, which correlated with decreased grey matter density in the amygdale which is known to play an important role in anxiety and stress.
On mindfulness and the practice of Dharma, His Holiness the Dalai Lama says, “On a deeper level, the meaning of practice of the Dharma is to watch one’s own mind. It is mindfulness of mental activities. Sometimes one deliberately tries to create positive emotions. Then through mindfulness one can realise that negative emotions are about to come and try to minimise them. That is the real practice of Dharma… not just going on long retreats.”

The author has a keen interest in philosophy and spirituality