Ten Things I Discovered After a Year of Mindfulness

Mindfulness can refer to the act of mindfulness meditation, which involves one actually sitting down and focusing on the breath, to going about one's day fully aware of one's own being, intensely engaged with one's own consciousness and how it responds to and determines each thought, action or bodily movement.

For instance, one may start out simple. One may go for a walk and pay attention to one's breath. Slowly, when this becomes the sole focus of one's attention, one adds another feature of one's activity to this realm of attention, such as the feeling and rhythm of one's legs. Eventually, one becomes aware of the arms, the torso, the shoulders, head, and neck.

The idea is to eventually become aware of one's thoughts as though they were no different than movements of the body or reflexes of the muscles. In achieving this, one can then quiet the mind and guide one's own thoughts for the better.

The result is often a great sense of ease, clarity, relaxation, and focus, though many claim it can also lead to a real awakening; a polar shift in consciousness like a crossed threshold to a new life. I started to see the following results and make the following discoveries after a year of actively trying to practice mindfulness on a regular basis.

1. Most thoughts are unnecessary.

One thing you may notice is just how repetitious some of your thoughts are once you start paying attention to them. We can find ourselves spending hours repeating a scene from a movie or an old conversation in our heads, or just worrying about something that is never likely to happen at all.

Even some of the things which we feel require our concern, upon examination, don't actually matter, like what someone we don't talk to that much thinks about us or if we'll get enough sleep the coming night. We spin endless webs of narrative in our heads which ultimately serve no purpose or only serve to enslave us and keep us from becoming stronger, freer, better people.

2. Stress reduces dramatically.

It's not just a matter of decreasing your stress-volume, but of recognizing what I like to call your your 'inner weather' to such a degree that you can prevent thoughts which would normally cause you stress and replace them with something encouraging and empowering before stress even has a chance to take root.

Living like this will literally change everything. It can be a slow process. It will cause you to confront things in your life you haven't wanted to face and face them head on. You have to pull weeds out by the root before you can prevent them from growing in the future. But when you do, you will thank yourself for taking the time to do so, no matter how long or painful. The end result is worth everything.

3. It's easier to prevent conflict.

Your comportment when dealing with others might change to such a degree that you can ease tension just by maintaining self-control. By controlling your breath you can control your voice, and then, the way your words are perceived.

This does wonders on the job and when dealing with relatives, friends or even enemies. One establishes a precedent of civility and an overall sense of trust between parties.

You may find, eventually, that not only do people trust that you will not let a disagreement get out of hand, but that you are actually someone worth seeking out for encouragement and strength.

4. Work becomes more efficient.

As you aren't as distracted, you get more done. Paradoxically, you get more done by doing less with greater focus. I found that when my mind was totally calm, I could better plan out and finish writing projects for my website, magazine, and books without too much worry. Slowing down helped me enjoy the moment and the act of working so that I wasn't constantly living a future which would never satisfy me. By allowing each moment to be what it was, I found myself getting by without much fuss.

5. Goals are met with greater ease.

Your goals become realistic and executable, as you never stop witnessing just how everything in life can become a means of achieving your goals. Your goals become an activation of the future within the present moment and you live the past, present, and future simultaneously, in a way. You act in such a way that there is no option but to achieve, no matter how much time it takes, no matter what feelings get stirred up along the way.

6. Joy is more frequent and lasts longer.

Joy becomes an uncanny part of your life. When I started experiencing real joy at the center of my being, I almost felt as though I was getting away with something; like I'd been given a large sum of money by mistake.

Most people probably don't know what to do with joy, as most people are actually addicted to their misery. Their resistance makes them feel alive. When you start letting go of the fever which accompanies the waking life of most people, your new challenge then becomes how to accept this gift you may feel you don't deserve.

7. Life is simplified.

The general business, the coming and going, the endless activity, and the endless worry about pleasing others just vanishes. You become the adult equivalent of a fourteen-year-old who has just gotten out of school for the summer, though in your case, summer just happens to be the rest of your life.

8. Life is lived with more depth.

Everything that doesn't matter is forgotten. What is essential is extracted from every transaction, every exchange, relationship, mood, feeling, movement, and experience. The moment of supreme value is put before everything else, and everything else only serves to bring about the revelation of truth hidden in all things. Everything becomes meaningful. Nothing is a means to something else, but rather, presence becomes the ultimate value and everything else is an expression of that value.

9. The mind is quiet.

You can see each thought coming as though it is a person walking down a long driveway. Nothing gets into your consciousness without permission.

Even if something does slip in unwanted, you merely get better at building your foundation and strengthening your domain. Your mind is like a placid lake under a mountain in the spring evening.

10. The mind becomes an instrument for almost any purpose.

Without all the extra fluff, baggage, noise, and narrative, you can turn your whole being into an instrument designed for a single purpose. Some won't see this result as necessary at all and that's fine. Everyone walks a different path. However, to those that so choose, it is possible to become an active agency in one's own life. One can behave like a cause and take up one's seat at the center of life, rather than blown about by the wind.

In Conclusion

The general experience and accompanying results will vary with each person. I do not claim that everyone will achieve the same results, however, the results I have listed reflect the general feeling of my experience and, therefore, remain a possibility for others.