Tai Ji is an easiest way to cultivate mindfulness, at least to me.
Mindfulness is rooted in Buddhist thought and theory. The concept has become popular in the US after a professor founded the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine at the University of Massachusetts in the 70s. Later, a group of researchers from Harvard University found that after 8 weeks of daily mindful practice, the participants reported a sense of increased peace and clarity. Their brain scan showed an increase in gray matter in parts of the brain associated with focus and attention and a decrease in gray matter associated with stress and anxiety.
There are many ways to cultivate mindfulness. The basic mindfulness meditation is the simplest. During the practice, you sit quietly and focus on your natural breathing. By concentrating deeply on the rhythm of breath, you are forcing your awareness inward and challenging yourselves to stay focused. It is like an exercise for your brain that strengthens your “attention muscle”.
Another mindfulness cultivating method is to focus on the Sensory – Notice sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touché without judgments. This method sometimes reminds me of how people taste wine. If you are a wine lover, you know when you taste wine, you let the wine moving around your tongue before swallow it. This way, you can taste all the flavors of the wine through different sensors located in different parts of your tongue, such as sweet, bitter, sourer, and so on. I think that it is very interesting, even though I don’t drink. Sensory links to emotions. Therefore to focus on sensory can be very tricky. For me, I don’t mind focusing on something that makes me happy, but something that may evoke strong negative feelings? No, I’d rather stay away from that.
Talking about emotion, there is a method of cultivating mindfulness that is focusing on emotions, to allow emotions to be present without judgment and let it go. I think that it is even harder to do.
My favorite way of cultivating mindfulness is through doing Tail Ji. Tai Ji is also called walking meditation. Movement, meditation, and deep breathing are the three key components of Tai Ji. These three components emphases on the three regulations of body focus, mental focus, and breathe focus. When practicing Tai Ji, the gentle flowing movements accompanied by deep breathing not only promote serenity and awareness but also bring many other health benefits.
You can cultivate your mindfulness in your own favorite way, for example, to practice through jogging. Off cause, this is not the time to throw fires, or weapons in the air. The best objects to use are something light, such as pieces of silk or clothes. When practicing, focus on your movement and the rhythm of your breath. Or you may practice mindfulness on the boat when you are sailing. Make sure there is no storm coming, no pirate around, and not near a shore where may bring you any troubles. When practice, watch the sunset, listen to the sound of waves, and feel the wave move you up and down. Well, I can’t do this. I had seasick. But If you are among 50% lucky people who don’t have seasick, this is probably a good time to practice.
In our daily life, sometimes things may not go the way we want. It is important to keep calm, to be positive, and not to be overwhelmed in a stressful situation. Mindfulness helps us to achieve this.
interesting, I’d like to try it.
interesting, I’d like to try it.