Mindfulness Myths Quiz

Mindfulness practice can be difficult, is it all about focus and concentration or could there be more. While the benefit of increasing the ability to concentrate and focus can come from your mindfulness meditation practice, it is certainly not about focusing and concentration. Remember, mindfulness is about cultivating awareness. Concentration can be an important skill to cultivate for our well-being, but it is not mindfulness.

Actually, mindfulness has its basis in the ancient Eastern traditions of the Buddhists and Hindus. Later, mindfulness was brought into Western psychology in the 1970s, particularly by Jon Kabat-Zinn, who created the still-popular Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program and founded the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Although mindfulness has received more exposure in recent years, it has a long history of use around the world.

There are many people who intentionally carve out time in their day to sit and practice a formal mindfulness meditation: learning a basic mindfulness meditation such as following the breath and practicing it on a regular, preferably daily, schedule. These are doctors, lawyers, teachers, police officers, grocery store clerks, sports players, and even some politicians.

Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future.Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment. Mindfulness also involves acceptance, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them—without believing, for instance, that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future.

This myth is rooted in the image of meditation as an esoteric practice reserved only for saints, holy men, and spiritual adepts. In reality, when you receive instruction from an experienced, knowledgeable teacher, meditation is easy and fun to learn.  The techniques can be as simple as focusing on the breath or silently repeating a mantra. One reason why meditation may seem difficult is that we try too hard to push our thoughts out of our head and concentrate, we're overly attached to results, or we’re not sure we are doing it right.  Meditation is about small steps, it can be a lifetime path to improving your practice. It can start with 30 seconds of quiet focused breathing and if that works for you just keep it up.