Have you heard of mindfulness? I want to start this text with information that will probably shock you. When we are awake, we spend almost half the time with the thought wandering around.

Instead of focusing on the here and now, we are stuck with the past, the future, or anything else that is happening far away from us

Unlike any other animal, human beings spend a lot of time thinking about things that are not happening around them, contemplating events that happened in the past, may happen in the future, or that will never happen. In fact, a vague mind seems to be the standard mode of operation for the human brain.

They concluded that our mind wanders 46.9% of the time we are awake. Did you understand? If you stay 16 hours awake, you will spend approximately 7:30 am thinking about something other than what you are doing.

If you’re doing the dishes, you’re thinking about something else. If you’re making your bed, you’re thinking about something else. If you’re driving, you’re thinking about something else. If you’re working, you’re thinking about something else.

THE DANGERS OF MULTITASK

You may have already noticed the great difficulty we have in being able to maintain total focus on an activity. As much as you are doing that, your head keeps spinning on other matters. And if you are not, that full concentration will probably last a few minutes.

We can blame much of the blame for this reality in modern times, when communication takes place in an absurd dynamic and external stimuli are exaggerated.

It’s a multitask.  As if we need to always be connected, producing something, talking to people. It turns out that this multitasking mentality creates stress and anxiety in us.

MINDFULNESS, VERY PLEASURE

Although rambling about the present allows us important reflections – how to philosophize, plan things, solve problems, etc. – this can have a high emotional cost if you are not careful with the dose. The purpose of Harvard research was to discover the relationship between a vague mind and happiness.

And guess what they found out? The so-called mindfulness, a state of consciousness focused on paying attention to the here and now, helps to relieve stress, anxiety and improves people’s general (including physical and emotional) well-being.

FULL ATTENTION

It can be said that mindfulness is a kind of active meditation, in which you dedicate your focus to the activity you are doing, without leaving any rambling about the past, future, or things around you disturbing your mind.

This state of mind, which many people call mindfulness, originates from ancient Buddhist meditation and, in recent years, has become a worldwide fever among people who seek a better quality of life for themselves.

The good news is you can practice mindfulness anywhere and anytime. Driving the car. Working on the computer. Preparing dinner. Whatever. The key is to return 100% of your awareness of the activity you are doing at that moment, without any judgments or mental observations.

Leave the reflections for another moment. At this time you should simply feel the temperature of the water hitting your hand, observe the textures of the porcelain, notice the foam-forming…

HOW TO PRACTICE MINDFULNESS

Mindfulness is not something that is dominated overnight. It takes patience to develop the discipline necessary to gain control of your own mind. This is that kind of skill that is both simple and complex. It takes you a minute to learn and a lifetime to master.

But getting started is easy. You just have to try to stay focused on every activity you do, and when a single thought distracts you, you should gently let it go in the same sudden way it arrived.

You don’t have to fight with him, because that will bring you even more anxiety. Relax. Think of your brain as a quarter. Just open the window and let the wind take the intruder away, in the smoothest and most natural way possible.

Over time this will become a habit. And that whole acceleration of opening WhatsApp every 5 minutes, sweating cold because of tomorrow’s meeting, suffering for something that happened yesterday, soon, will be part of the past for you.