In the first part of our series on mindfulness, we discovered that in order to develop mindfulness, you have to become more aware of your thoughts and emotions at all times, even if you’re working on something stressful.

You also have to remind yourself to look inward at all times so you can become a calmer and more relaxed spectator-participant of the world.

• Today’s post will center on some advanced techniques that you can also use to master mindfulness.
• It must be noted early on that there is no shortcut to deep mindfulness and you have to continue practicing if you want to be naturally mindful at all times.

How can you become more mindful despite the presence of stressors?

Mindfulness can be likened to a very sharp sword that can slice stressful situations in half.

However, you have to be willing to wield it before it can help you conquer stress. If you’re ready to vanquish stress through mindfulness, here are some additional steps that will help refine your mindfulness… and discover more of  ‘The Super Power of Mindfulness’

1. Suspend Your Judgments –

• We now live in a world where people are constantly required by society to choose, decide and judge things.
• We pass small and big judgments on anyone or anything that comes our way.

The problem with passing judgment all the time is that you end up spending too much mental energy on even the smallest inconveniences of life.

The result is that you will feel exhausted and burnt out even if you are just sitting in the office. Mindfulness requires us to adapt a mindset of acceptance, instead.

How does the mindset of acceptance work?

You must avoid viewing things as positive or negative; instead, you must simply accept what is happening at the present time and mold your action or response to suit your present needs.

As you practice suspending your judgment, you will soon find out that many of the stressors that have been “chasing” you around are actually insubstantial are not deserving of your time, effort or energy.

The fogginess caused by stress will also begin to lift and your mind will become as clear as the sky. A clear mind is something you will definitely need if you want to manage your stress more effectively.

2. Avoid Instant Reactions –

• The human brain was designed to create routines or patterns of thoughts and behaviors that are used automatically in different situations.
• These predetermined patterns, as you may already know, are not always useful or productive. I call these behaviors and thoughts “reactive elements” of the mind because they come to the surface without the need for conscious thinking.
• Instant reactions can foster a life full of stress because it’s easy to let the stress get the upper hand because it feels ‘right’ for the situation.

However, if you continue to let stress get the upper hand, you will become unhappy and less productive in the long term.

In order to combat these subconscious reactive elements, you have to practice conscious thinking.

How does conscious thinking occur?

1. The human mind is divided into two distinct parts: the conscious mind and the subconscious mind.
2. The subconscious mind actually gives instructions to the conscious mind.
3. The latter protects the subconscious mind from intrusions (e.g. potentially harmful ideas).

• Conscious thinking will require you to shift the power of thought to the conscious mind so you can exert more control over what takes place in your subconscious.
• Conscious thinking is also a great way to create actual solutions that you can use to remedy problems for good.
• The subconscious mind can help with creating solutions but only if it’s not on “autopilot”.

3. Be More Compassionate –

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines compassion as “having sympathy and pity for the misfortune of other people”.

Choosing to be more compassionate automatically hampers negative judgments and knee-jerk reactions, which then leads to a quieter and more peaceful mind.

• Being more compassionate toward other people and their situations in life is a great way to beat stress because your mind will be focused on sympathy rather than on negative thoughts and emotions.
• Immersing yourself in compassionate thought and action can also break down the hard shell of pessimism that many people develop as a way of dealing with stressors.

When you see reality as a series of bad situations and misfortunes, you definitely need a dose of compassionate behavior to reverse your pessimism.

A person who chooses to be compassionate at all times is more likely to find inner peace and happiness than someone who makes a conscious choice to be critical of other people’s words and actions.

Mindfulness is an ancient method of gaining self-awareness.

• It is practiced extensively in the East and has strong connections to the ancient philosophical bodies of Buddhism and even Hinduism.
• Mindfulness is one of the key practices taught by many spiritual disciplines because it helps quiet the mind and also helps improve a person’s understanding of his own thoughts and emotions.

NB: In the context of stress management, mindfulness can be extremely useful in changing a person’s general mindset and thought patterns because it encourages conscious thinking at all times.

NB: Too often, we live our lives on “autopilot” to save time and energy on actual conscious thinking.

>>> However, there are many instances where our “autopilot” tendencies produce the opposite of efficiency and convenience: they generate chronic stress.

How does “autopilot” thinking cause stress?

Here’s a good example: it is exceedingly common for people to become annoyed or irritated when they receive calls from telemarketers and similar sales agents.

The common autopilot response to this situation would be to immediately dismiss the telemarketer and feel annoyed that your time was somehow impinged upon by someone you don’t even know.

While the response to the situation may seem appropriate, it doesn’t mean that it’s helpful to anyone. On the contrary, such behavior often causes more problems because it can be extremely stressful to think that someone “stole” some of your time.

We are going to reverse this negative trend so that you can become calmer and more self-aware when you deal with potentially stressful situations.

The Path to Mindfulness

Below are some essential guidelines for developing mindfulness in your life. The journey to mindfulness is never easy, but you will begin reaping the rewards of your efforts very soon!

1. Move Inward – We are often overwhelmed with all the demanding responsibilities and obligations of modern life. Our minds end up focusing on what’s happening on the outside world and we forget to tend to what’s taking place inside.

• What’s happening to your inner life?
• Constant attention to what’s happening on the outside world can cause our inner lives to starve due to lack of nourishment. Our thoughts and emotions become imbalanced and as a result, we feel exhausted, frustrated and even angry at the world.
• To remedy this situation, you must relearn how to take refuge in your inner world. You must become more aware of what’s happening on the inside as you continue to manage your affairs in the outside world.

By doing so, you will become more aware of your thoughts and feelings and you will be able to transform yourself into a calm and impartial evaluator of the outside world.

2. Developing Hyper-Focus – Hyper-focus is a powerful tool that can help lessen the mental load of individuals who are constantly bombarded by racing thoughts and distractions.

Writers, painters and all manner of artists have a natural knack for developing hyper-focus.

Hyper-focus occurs when your mind becomes completely absorbed with what you are presently working on. No distractions, no racing thoughts – just pure, blissful focus that will allow you to complete your tasks with ease and efficiency.

In Eastern spiritual practices such as Buddhism, hyper-focus is used to enhance the positive effects of meditation. We can appropriate the same technique to help you rein in those distractions so you become more efficient and productive.

3. Practice Constant Self-Awareness –

• Like any other new skill, you must practice mindfulness whenever you can in order to master it.
• What I do is I remind myself to be more aware and mindful of what’s happening inside when I’m doing something.

When you practice mindfulness more frequently, you begin to discover your actual thought patterns and the emotions they rouse.

Mindfulness allows people to rediscover themselves completely so they can be more in control in times of stress.

4. Focus on the Moment – This is one of the toughest skills to master: focusing all your thoughts and energy on what’s presently happening.

• The Easter spiritual masters call this “being in the moment”. In the West, this state of heightened focus is called self-hypnosis.
• People hypnotize themselves all the time without knowing it. For example, when you read a good novel, hours pass and you barely feel it. Writers can write for a whole day without feeling hungry or tired.
• Hyper-focus is the stepping stone to self-hypnosis or being “in the moment”. This skill is challenging because we live in an era where multi-tasking is considered a valuable skill. However, not everyone thrives with multi-tasking.

Scientists have even stated that our minds can only focus on one thing at a time and that when we multi-task, our brains light up like Christmas lights.

• The various brain regions don’t “light up” or work all at the same time.

There was a time when Visitacion Valley middle school in San Francisco could have featured in a gritty US crime drama. Surrounded by drugs and gang violence, the kids were stressed out and agitated. One day children came in to find three dead bodies dumped in the schoolyard. “In 2006 there were 38 killings in our neighbourhood,” says Barry O’Driscoll, the school’s head of physical education (PE). He says the lives of students were infected by violence in the community, and several fights would break out every day.

In 2007 a meditation programme called Quiet Time was brought in to meet some of these challenges. “When I first heard about it I thought it probably wasn’t going to work,” says O’Driscoll. “We get thrown a new thing every couple of years so I didn’t put too much faith in it.” But in April, just a month after meditation began, teachers noticed changes in behaviour. “Students seemed happy,” says O’Driscoll. “They worked harder, paid more attention, were easier to teach and the number of fights fell dramatically.”

In the first year of Quiet Time suspensions at Visitacion Valley – which has 500 students aged 11-13 – were reduced by 45% (pdf). By 2009-10, attendance rates were over 98% (some of the highest in the city), and today 20% of graduates are admitted to the highly academic Lowell high school – before it was rare for even one student to be accepted. Perhaps even more remarkable, last year’s California Healthy Kids Survey from the state’s education department found that students at Visitacion Valley middle school were the happiest in the whole of San Francisco.

Just Click this RED link to Get my Free Report on ‘The Power Of Mindfulness’.

>>>>   The Complete article Can be accessed here …  and great thanks to those who composed this report.  I`m privileged to share this with you .  https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/nov/24/san-franciscos-toughest-schools-transformed-meditation

This is the first of a series of articles over the next period of time where I will share personal views and the views of attitudes of a diverse group of others.

This first article from BuzzFeed asks the question “What is Mindfulness and Why you should try it”  This is an informative and light-hearted and hugely valuable entree into the topic. Yet at the same time renews and adds to the information about for the mindfulness practitioner.

A portion of the article follows, while there is a link to the original source and the end. Further information about “mindfulness” will be published on a daily basis.

Mindfulness is a growing movement that encourages people to take a minute to notice their body and its surroundings. To get a little more information about mindfulness, what it is and isn’t, and how people new to mindfulness can begin practicing awareness, we spoke with Cheryl Jones — one of Aetna’s wellness program strategy leads, who is trained in mindfulness and completed the Teacher Development Intensive in Mindfulness-Based-Stress Reduction (MBSR).

What is mindfulness?

Cheryl Jones: Mindfulness is paying attention or noting whatever is happening in the moment with a gentle and open mind. It involves being present in the moment, the one you’re in right now. Mindfulness doesn’t involve chanting, bowing, sitting cross-legged, or burning incense.

How do we practice mindfulness?

CJ: Mindfulness can be practiced formally through meditation where we pause and notice breathing, thoughts, feelings, sensations and surroundings. It can also be practiced informally while driving, during conversations, while exercising, and as you’re eating.

What are the benefits to practicing mindfulness?

CJ: Mindfulness can help lower stress and builds resilience so you can meet the demands of your day with more ease. It allows you to have more clarity to solve problems. Mindfulness can help you be patient with yourself and others. And it can make you more effective and feel happier.

The complete article can be accessed here https://www.buzzfeed.com/aetna/ask-an-expert-what-is-mindfulness-and-why-should-you-try-it?utm_term=.hlzl95EPN#.iiRaJyrvx