The Power of Mindfulness

The concept we all forget about in today's busy age

This time I want to start off with this excerpt from John Keat’s Ode to Melancholy.

She dwells with Beauty — Beauty that must die;

And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips

Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh,

Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips:

Ay, in the very temple of Delight

Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran shrine,

Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue

Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine;

His soul shalt taste the sadness of her might,

And be among her cloudy trophies hung.

This excerpt is one of my favorites and unknowingly was the first time I ever even thought of mindfulness. Granted, I had no idea what this concept even was, but this excerpt from Keat’s Ode reminded me about one thing: melancholy is normal and expected. There is beauty in the sadness of mankind. While one might go out and read countless writings on this ode, to me, the most beautiful thing about it is that it brings me to accept my emotions and experience them as a whole rather than trying to fight them. This excerpt in particular reminds me that being sad should not be seen as something negative but rather something that is normal and expected, something beautiful. More on this below but for now let’s get to the meat of this powerful tool.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the state of active and open attention to the present moment. The key is to observe thoughts and feelings without any fear or judgment about the past or future.

In a mindful state, one focuses on physical sensations, emotions, and thoughts, in a very neutral way to increase self-awareness, reduce stress, improve focus and concentration, and improve one’s overall well-being.

While mindfulness is often associated with meditation practices, it can also be applied to daily activities such as eating, walking, or conversations.

Mindful Meditation

Mindful meditation is a form of meditation that focuses on paying attention to the present moment, objectively, with the aim of training one’s mind to focus on thoughts, surroundings, and feelings, without getting caught up in them or becoming overwhelmed.

Mindful meditation has numerous benefits, including reducing stress and anxiety, improving focus and attention, and improving one’s overall well-being.

While at first, it may be really hard to focus, especially for us who have used social media for so long, it is important to notice this and be easy with yourself. My favorite type of mindful meditation is a technique I learned in my mindfulness class. Let’s call it the Magee technique.

Basically, I take a “moment to arrive” whenever I start or feel restless. An example of this is whenever I begin to have my office hours for students, I take a moment where I close my eyes and just breathe. I start by saying my favorite affirmation (blog on this coming soon): “My body is healthy, my mind is at peace, I belong here and I accept that anything that happens to me is for my ultimate success.”

Then, I follow it up with a short moment to breathe and focus on my feelings and surroundings, I find that I am able to tune into the surroundings around me and my feelings/thoughts. By doing so I am able to remind myself that whatever I am feeling is just that, a feeling. It is beauty, a beauty that must eventually die. With this in mind, I breathe and let my thoughts just flow for a minute or two without resisting or fighting my thoughts.

The most important thing is that this tunes me into the present. Additionally, this technique takes place in such a short span of time and can be accessed by anyone at any point. As someone who uses TikTok, I found that my attention span dwindled to the point where now it feels like a chore to watch long TikToks. By doing this short technique, I have found that I have been able to recuperate my focus and improve my ability to just sit objectively.

To close, I will say that there are longer meditations one can do, see youtube or Spotify for guided meditations. I tried to do these and have tried to include prayer but I am still training to be able to do these for the full 10-15 minutes. Someday, I will get there, but for now, the Magee Technique throughout the day is ideal for me.

Physical Mindfulness

Now, this is an interesting one. To begin, this sort of mindfulness is just mindfulness during a time when one is moving.

The time I performed this with my class at the law school, I had people ask if we were silently protesting! This is because, ideally, one would walk in a certain path, one slow step at a time, and with each step say an intention. I have tried this in my personal life but have found that sometimes I, as someone with anxiety, get overwhelmed and frustrated. Ironically, this is the exact reason to continue to practice this and be easy with me and understand that these feelings will come and go. As such, since slowing down is hard, I have found this to be the hardest thing to do but also, in a twist, I guess that by accepting this, I have already made growth - according to my professor.

Another way I have implemented physical mindfulness is through my workouts. Whenever I walk or hike I try to just keep my music off and focus on my surroundings. I realize how fast or slow I am walking, I listen to the birds chirping, and I focus on my breath. While there are times when I do listen to music or an audio book, I try my best to realize how such media is affecting me at that moment. For example, the other day I was listening to “Many Men” by 50 Cent. Great song that is in my workout playlists but at 7a on a Monday, I was in the mood to lift weights when my goal was to just tune in and slowly relax to get ready to go to school where I was hoping to get some deep work done. By realizing how media consumption affects me, I am able to restructure accordingly.

Finally, I have found that during my lifts I have been able to really hone in and listen to my body. As someone who played contact sports throughout my life, I started lifting at 13 and I have always been in love with powerlifting. I would mindlessly add more and more weight and just eat certain calories to maintain strength. This was important to note because I want to continue to lift and be healthy for years to come. By being more mindful of my workout, I realized that there was no reason for me to be taking 200mg of caffeine at 5a to lift 405 lbs. I no longer play sports and am on my computer most of the day. I realized that I was no longer enjoying what I was doing and instead of being in tune with my body and working out with the goal to be the best version of myself, I was just mindlessly lifting. This is why I was getting more injured as of late, I was not being mindful of my lack of fun. Now, I have restructured my workouts and have been listening to my body my form has gotten better and my stress has been reduced as I cut out bad habits and my workouts are now stress relieving rather than just a mindless chore.

Conversational Mindfulness

Conversational mindfulness is the practice of being present and engaged during conversations with others. It involves focusing on the present moment, listening attentively to the other person, and responding mindfully.

This means that one stays off distractions, uses eye contact, and becomes aware of one's own thoughts, feelings, and biases that may arise during the conversation and is mindful of how they affect the conversation. This is key and very important as fighting off biases and being able to respond in a way where the other party feels seen not only improves the conversation but also allows one to think before responding.

Something that I have done that really helped was put my Apple Watch away and only use it for workouts. This keeps me so much more distraction-free and keeps me away from my phone. While tech might be very convenient sometimes one must think, is it worth my peace?

I hope that with this post, we all can be a bit more mindful and improve our quality of life.