Being Mindful: Living in the Now

By David Tuffley

If you can observe your thoughts, who exactly is doing the observing?

It is not the 'I' that has a name and a life history -- your egoic self. This simple question is at the centre of the great religions and spiritual traditions in the world. Mindfulness in the Buddhist tradition is one source of answers.
Beyond the spiritual benefits, there are numerous health benefits for the mindfulness practitioner. At the physical level, mindfulness recent research shows it helps reduce stress, lower blood pressure, treat heart disease, reduce chronic pain, help you sleep soundly, alleviate gastro-intestinal problems to name a few.

At the mental level, psychotherapists are using mindfulness as an effective therapy. It is showing good results in helping with depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, relationship conflicts, anxiety disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The techniques outlined in this concise, plain-language eBook are easy to understand. You have nothing lose and everything to gain by learning this ancient healing technique to help you towards a happier, healthier life.

You are Not your Mind
Does this statement unsettle you? That the real you is not your mind is a spiritual truth expressed in many religions and traditions, in slightly differing terms. Your mind and the thoughts that run through it may seem to be everything, but it is not the totality of who you are -- far from it. There is a much greater reality beyond your mind that is waiting to be recognized.

So, if you are not your mind, then who are you? Your consciousness has evolved as a survival mechanism. All living creatures have some degree of awareness of their surroundings, sufficient for their survival. We humans have a very highly developed mind, but it is still basically a survival mechanism that is dedicated to strategizing ways to stay alive

The human mind is a product of millions of years of evolution. We could write volumes about how it all came about, but for the purposes of understanding mindfulness, let us just say that while we think of ourselves as an entity that exists in the world, with a name, a title, and a place in society, all of that is really no more than a stream of thoughts passing through.
Mindfulness shows us, make us aware that thoughts are transient phenomena that come into your awareness, stay for a while, and then go, making way for the next thought and the next. They appear to be real, but in fact they are about as real as smoke blowing in the wind or a movie projected onto a screen.

Mindfulness helps you to understand that there is much more to you than the passing parade of thoughts running through your mind.

Life unfolds moment by moment. This moment now, right now, is the only time that anything can actually happen. Awareness of this simple truth gives you conscious control over how you think and feel.

In the space between what happens to you and how you react, lies the power to choose. Mindfulness empowers us to make conscious choices. We have the power to not react badly to a bad situation, and we can choose to react positively. This ability to consciously over-ride our conditioning and instincts is what distinguishes us humans from all other sentient beings on this planet.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 149538439X
• ISBN13: 9781495384394
• Release Date: January 2014
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 66 Pages
• Weight: 0.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 5.5" x 8.5"