An Intro to mindfulness

Stephanie Wright, PsyD

October 29, 2022


If anyone were to ask me where my intentional self-healing journey began, I would say it began with the introduction and practice of mindfulness and presence.

Mindfulness can be understood as bringing the activities of the mind into conscious awareness. Conscious awareness, or consciousness, is similar to metacognition, or thinking about what you’re thinking about. This is in contrast to the perpetual stream of thoughts many of us find ourselves trapped in throughout our waking hours. We can view the mind as one function of the brain that, at its best, operates within our conscious awareness. At its worst, it largely functions automatically using programs that have been previously encoded. Thought leaders and spiritual teachers describe this as being the “watcher” of your thoughts. To understand this in practice, take a moment to do the following exercise:

Get in a comfortable position, close your eyes or lower your gaze, and wait for a thought to emerge. Take note of the thought that emerged. You may experience feeling as if the “you” that had the thought is separate from the “you” that experienced the thought as the watcher. This is one entry into mindfulness.

Another way I like to practice this is by creating a mental image. Visualizations could be useful tools to practice mindfulness and certain forms of meditation. For this practice, I visualize an image of my brain. Yes, an anatomical brain. For me, my brain appears as a neon sign. With each thought, the bright neon light illuminates as if the energy of the thought was powering the light itself. When I first learned this technique it was helpful in practicing mindfulness because I was able to distinguish more clearly the difference between my active mind and my passive mind.

When I think of mindfulness, I think of intentionally “filling my mind.” When I take notice of my mind when it is on autopilot, I notice that I have all sorts of thoughts flowing through it. Most of them are related to past or future things and are not necessarily concerned with what is now. When I fill my mind, I flood it with the now. I bring my awareness to all that is now.

Try this exercise:

From where you are right now, ask, “Where are my feet?” Take notice of what position your feet are in. Are your toes flexed? Are your feet flat on the ground or surface? Are they moving? How are they moving? Move this awareness up to your ankles. Feel free to start with the feet or any other part of your body and spend as much time as you need to on this practice. Alternatively, you can select an object and apply the same focus to it, spending time bringing all of your awareness to the details. When this is the only thing you are focused on, you are practicing mindfulness. You’ve successfully brought your awareness to the here and now.

I recommend practicing this several times per day with different activities. Set an intention to focus on your morning and or bedtime routine with mindfulness. Let every sip of water be mindful, allowing yourself to focus on the experience of drinking water. The more you practice this, the more you’ll find yourself releasing thoughts of the past and future. 

I consider this a vital step in setting the tone for self-healing. Just consider, all of the thoughts and feelings that plague us, keeping us trapped in a loop of trauma or pain, belongs to another timeline. Our brain, designed to keep us safe, causes our bodies to experience the past over and over again. In order to free ourselves from the repetitive loop of past experiences, we must learn how to be in the present moment. Becoming a different version of the ‘self’ you know and are attached to, may take time. Some things may shift with basic awareness, other patterns require more intention and practice. Mindfulness is a great foundational practice for a self-healing journey and will be invaluable as you are becoming a new you!

In Love, Light, and Loads of Compassion,

Dr. Steph


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