Were You Aware?
What does it mean to be “mindful?” Mindfulness is to be fully present in the moment, fully aware of all that is happening around you, and the choice to be cognizant – not reactive – during. Nurturing our awareness can help our minds to adapt and cope with a myriad of sensory or emotional experiences that can sometimes cloud or inhibit our judgment. This process is meant in kind – when we acknowledge both our environmental factors and our responses to it with gentility, we are able to better cope and process all that is happening around us.
Mindfulness also involves a complete acceptance of our thoughts and feelings in the moment, and to allow the ability to fully feel as we do without critique or judgment. To do this, we have to relinquish the expectation that there is a “right” or “wrong” way to feel and allow ourselves the immersive capacity to take-in the entirety of our experience, our thoughts thereof, without broaching the past or worrying too immediately into the future.
Now that we’ve gotten a better grasp on what it means to be mindful, let’s explore a little further into meditation and how being mindful during the meditative experience can help you to better reconnect with your body.
What is Meditation?
What does meditation fully entail? Meditation is defined as a broad set of techniques that, when performed, can bring about awareness of both the mind and body. Meditation is equally a state of consciousness as it is physical movement. During meditation, you are focusing as much on your sensory experiences as you are on balance and fluidity throughout the body.
Meditation in and of itself is its own state of mindfulness. During meditation, the overall goal is to create awareness and promote a positive and healthy perspective of self which allows you to acknowledge your thoughts and feelings without judgment. As you nurture your meditative skills in time, you might even come to a better understanding of yourself, too.
If you think of meditation as an exercise, it requires you to practice to develop and nurture it as a skill; no one is innately proficient at meditating! There is no right or wrong way to meditate, also – distractions will come and go, you might lose track of your breathing – and that is all okay! It’s more about the journey and the continual effort you put into getting the most of your experience.
Being mindful while meditating encourages a natural curiosity of the body, mind, and of the overall experience it means to be human – to think, to feel, to breathe. Creating this sort of intimacy within oneself can deepen our collective understanding and lead to more positive, introspective experiences!
Part 2: Cannabis Use and Building a Better, more Mindful YOU.
In the next part of our mirco-blog series, we’re going to introduce cannabis into our mindful meditation practice! There are a plethora of cannabinoids that are well known for promoting a mindful mentality, too. The duality of an elevated headspace and relaxed body can allow you to properly tune into your body’s collective frequencies and allow a more intimate connection to yourself.
