Persuasive Essay On Mindfulness

Introduction Stop what you are doing, clear your mind, and focus only on your breath. When your thoughts begin to wonder, refocus and bring them back to your breath. This seems like a simple task, but most of us struggle to clear our minds for more than a few moments. Today’s fast-paced and technology driven culture constantly bombards our senses and more importantly, our thoughts. Our thoughts are constantly commandeered by fantasies, anxieties, and worries. We spend most of our time reliving past events and pondering the future. We spend work days feeling resentful, wishing we were anywhere else. We sit through family dinners thinking about all the chores that need to be finished. We worry about attending the class reunion because we aren’t sure what everyone will think. We do all of these things rather than focus on the experiences happening right here and now. Most of us are aware of this behavior, and yet we do it anyway. We spend very little time in the present moment, not for lack of want

Mindfulness involves accepting our thoughts and emotions without judgment, and without believing that there is a right or wrong way to feel in a given situation. Our thoughts and emotions are not labeled as good or bad. They are observed as simply happening until they pass. While practicing mindfulness one does not rehash the past or imagine the future. Attention is focused on what is being sensed in the present moment. There is a sense of self apart from things. Mindfulness is moment to moment awareness and purposefully placing attention on things that we wouldn’t normally give a second thought to. Mindfulness can be thought of as a way of being, rather than an activity. It is the awareness of wondering thoughts and purposefully directing them back, rather than letting them