"All Meditation is Mindfulness Meditation"

Isn't it interesting that people call meditation, mindfulness meditation? Let me explain. Meditation is always about mindfulness. But meditation can also be about any task that you're 100% focused on. I'll show you later in here how to do this. Also, reading any of my material won't make a change in your life, until you actually put something into action and practice what I teach.

Mindfulness is about being present. Another way of saying this, is that your mind is in the moment. You aren't thinking about the past or the future. Therefore you're neither feeling guilty about the past nor worried about the future, if that's how you are. You're focused in the now and in the moment. This is a state of being you want to be in.

This is also how you quiet the mind. Now, it does take effort to do it. One of the ways to achieve this is to practice mindfulness meditation, which I teach you in meditation techniques.

Another way of looking at mindfulness meditation is when you're focused on performing a single task. This is a good thing. Just by focusing on one task at a time and giving it all your attention, you're increasing your ability to concentrate.

So when you learn to concentrate on the task at hand, you're disciplining your mind. This is why multi-tasking really doesn't work, if YOU ARE in fact trying to do two or more tasks at the same time. These days, multi-tasking really means this: you're cooking while the dishwasher and the washing machine are going at the same time. But you're not actually doing the dishes or washing your clothes.

You're doing the actual cooking. The machines are doing the other work, not you. Or maybe you're preparing the vegetables before you cook them, but the oven is already cooking the roast for supper. You're really not tending to it much, especially if you're using the clock timer that lets you know when to turn off the oven.

While we're on the subject of cooking, let me use this as an example of how you would be mindful as you prepare your meal. Before you begin preparing your meal, get yourself into a state of love and caring or at least, calmness. This is important because your feelings and intention make a huge difference to how the meal will taste!

If you, the cook, are in a good mood, the food will be delicious. If you're feeling off and grumpy while you cook, watch out! It won't taste very good at all!

Remember any meals that you could've thrown out? Remember other meals that were so delicious everyone raved about it for days or even weeks later? The difference was in your mood and in your presence.

Now let me illustrate how to do mindfulness meditation while you're preparing a meal:

Mindfully take out the cutting board and place it on the kitchen counter.
Mindfully remove the knife from where you store it and place it by the cutting board.
Mindfully select the pot you want to use and place it on the stove.
Mindfully take out the carrots out of the fridge.
Then you put all of your attention to cutting the carrots.
When you do, you are careful not to injure yourself while preparing the carrots.
Then you put all of your attention to putting them in the pot you have ready for them.
Then you take the next vegetable and put all your attention to cutting those up and so on.

Each one of these steps was a mindful meditation. Being single-minded is a good thing. For one thing, it prevents accidents and injury! So often you might complain about your lack of focus or you can't concentrate like you used to. That's because your mind is so cluttered with random and not so random thoughts.

Here's another way that mindfullness can help you. You may suffer from anxiety and panic attacks because you just simply worry too much.

Worry is thinking that something bad might happen in the future. But if you really honestly look at what it is that's bothering you, you may actually have NO evidence that it will happen.

Often you worry because you had a traumatic experience in the past. Now you're all worked up because you expect it to happen again.

So mindfulness meditation will help you to focus on the present instead and to declutter your mind. Go ahead and begin practicing those meditation techniques. Take yourself out of your head because whenever you suffer from worry, YOU'RE thinking too much!

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