I want to dive deep into an understanding of the practice of mindfulness and its power to change your mind, change your perception and how you response to the world. To be mindful is to develop Self-Awareness and essentially integrate and coordinate your personality as an effective vehicle for soul expression.

I will explore the psychology and science as well as the deeper esoteric insights behind this ancient spiritual practice, founded in Buddhism but now adopted by many westerns progressive minds, sometimes unappreciated and dismissed as simply a new age practice except by those who truly understand its power to raise your conscious awareness and connect you with that which is Universal. 

It sounds simple, and evokes a profoundly beautiful experience of life but is not easy to cultivate. It requires discipline over an extended time to master. I aim to explain just what mindfulness is and what it is not, and how it goes hand in hand with the practice of meditation as essential to anyone who seeks to truly live and not simply study or know about a spiritual life. 

Many find it challenging as it asks you to be prepared to take off the lens you wear that colours the way you see the world and reality and see it as it truly is.

You could swop the word mindfulness for Consciously aware, Greater Awareness, Soul connection, Connection to Universal Consciousness, Unity Consciousness, Soul perception, Higher Vibrational State, Truth perception, Intuitive living.

When you are mindful you step into a connection with the Eternal now ever present awareness and step out of your thinking lower mind as interpreter of reality. You become the silent witness, the observer and simply connect with the world through your senses and allow it to be as it is. This is living as a soul experiencing the material world. In present moment awareness there is no mind thought, commentary, analysis, opinion, judgement or any other thought process colouring your experience. You remove the lens that colours your perception and simply experience things as they are.

Through mindfulness we come to realise the illusion of time and understand the continuity of consciousness. Time is a construct of the lower mind and it is in these moments of timelessness that you can appreciate that the present moment is all you ever have. The past has gone, the future will never arrive, but here and now you have the opportunity to change. In fact it is the only time you can change. It is also the only moment you can truly experience what it is to be alive. All creativity, all happiness, all choice only resides in the present moment. 

We often experience the wonder of mindfulness in moments of crisis or trauma when we act spontaneously, intuitively as the need arises with no thought or planning and these actions often reflect the highest human capacities and qualities. We all know incredible stories of true heroes who simply responded to the need of the moment.

We see this in the seemingly effortless incredibly beautiful almost slow motion action in sports people who have mastered mindfulness in performance and allow the performance to express through them.

You may have experienced moments of absolutely clear insight when intuitive understanding simply arises on the palette of your mind and paints a beautiful picture of complete realisation of some truth or presents the perfect solution to a problem or conflict. This can only occur if you are present and aware not caught up in your thinking mind.

In the West especially we have developed our lower analytical thinking mind through education and the accumulation of knowledge. This was a necessary part of our collective evolution. But increasingly there is the realisation that we have overdeveloped our mind in this way. Many of the mental ailments and anguish that are on the increase in especially the West are due to overthinking and an over reliance on the lower mind. We are too much in our head.

 Spending time in nature is an excellent way to practice mindfulness. When we simply allow ourselves to 'Be' in nature, to open all our senses and breathe we experience ourselves as a Soul. We experience a profound connection to the universal whilst grounded in the material. This connection to the peace inherent in nature enables a connection to the peace inherent within us. This is why I have written an online course that teaches you to meditate through a connection with nature.

An outer love of the peace in nature inspires an inner love of meditation and connection to a deep source of wisdom, clarity, calm and strength within you.

To be mindful is to function as a Soul through your personality vehicle. You see the world, hear the world, connect with the world through your physical senses, and your etheric energy as one entity, there is no duality, conflict, analysis, commentary or any of the emotional astral lower mind stuff of the personality. 

When mindful you spiritualise matter. You bring your soul to witness the dance of life.

A focus on your breath will always bring you into the present moment, as it coordinates and integrates all aspects of you into one whole. It connects you to your Higher Self. This is why in moments of profound connection we often experience our breath is taken away as we pause and feel this connection.

We experience this breath taking awareness when we connect with a sunset, a sunrise a poignant moment in the day when all mind activity is quiet and you simply are. You learn to 'Be'. To BE present. This is a connection in that moment with the truth of who you are, it is your Soul seeing the world, hearing the world, feeling the world and that is why in those moments we see incredible truth, beauty and goodness. The qualities of the Soul seeing the truth of the world with no duality. You and the world are one and you open to an awareness of all that is going on in the world.  

You can experience Incredible insights into everything as mindfulness opens your intuition.

The Eternal now is to be connected. Love which is the energy vibration of our Universe is connection. 

Fear and all its manifestations is simply an absence of love. Fear is based on disconnection.

It is disconnection from your Soul, from love, from God, from the Universe, from what is good, true and beautiful. 

In a Course in Miracles we are taught that we can only ever be in a state of Love or a state of Fear. The two cannot co-exist. Fear is generated in the mind and doesn't actually exist, it is an illusion. We don't experience it as an illusion but it is one of the glamours that mankind has to transmute. 

Love is not a sentimental feeling that involves attachment to that which is loved or loving.

It is more than the emotion our culture portrays it to be. 

Love is a state of Being. It is only truly advanced spiritual practitioners that truly understand what love is. What it is to be filled with the Christ consciousness and this is to be connected completely, unconditionally, simply because you exist. You develop the capacity to love all others regardless of whether you know them or not, regardless of their personality, but to love their Soul, to love as a Soul.

When you are present in the moment for that brief time you experience love and a connection to the Universal and that which stands behind all of creation. By connecting to creation you connect to the creator, to God, to Brahman to the Universal field of Consciousness or whatever way you define the intelligence or energy that interweaves and connects all. 

If you wish to watch a video of my complete talk on this subject,  including How do we practice Mindfulness go to

https://youtu.be/PZNFtgsMOfI

or

https://youtu.be/L3mimFwNipw

Namaste

Teresa