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Mindfulness isn't "thinking about chopping onions while chopping onions." Mindfulness is chopping onions. The confusion is that "developing" mindfulness means
by flaque 5y ago
Mindfulness isn't "thinking about chopping onions while chopping onions." Mindfulness is chopping onions.
The confusion is that "developing" mindfulness means recognizing when, while chopping onions, you're instead thinking about work, or that embarrassing moment from years ago.
There are meditation practices, like "noting", that have you think or say what you're doing while you're doing it. But this is an exercise to train mindfulness, not mindfulness itself.
- lugged 5y agoYou're arguing semantics. These two things are not mutually exclusive either. You can and should practice both.
- savolai 5y agoPlease elaborate what arguing semantics means to you in this context. The comment above seems very relevant to me. Sure, mindfulness (meditation?) can be both. Still, the signposts point primarily not to thinking as the driver of doing (being), but to awareness itself.
- twelvechairs 5y agoThe article is worse than parent commenter in sematics. It equates mindfulness with golfers 'paying attention to their swing' which is just plain wrong. Mindfulness is not focussing on an outcome, like hitting a golf ball exactly in the right way, but about understanding the breadth of experiences in the present - senses and thoughts.
- visarga 5y agoIt's like going to a discount store, browsing the isles and finding good deals here and there (fun random shopping), vs going to the mall to get that blue shirt with white lines, and never finding it in the right size in any store (an often frustrating experience). The difference is in how you filter your experiences - wide filter with no specific purpose is mindful state, narrow filter with exact purpose is regular state. A simple test: in mindful states you are very aware of the body and in regular states you forget about it.
- flaque 5y ago> You can and should practice both. Yes.
- agumonkey 5y agoso it's similar to [programmer's] flow ?
- flaque 5y agoYes
- locuscoeruleus 5y agoI think a mindfulness teacher would describe what you refer to as flow as absorbed awareness. The alternative would be panoramic awareness, where you aren't just focused on one thing (the problem you're solving) but you are aware of everything that is going on in the moment.
- agumonkey 5y agooh yeah interesting