Mindfulness—the practice of consciously directing your attention in the present moment, without reactivity or judgement—helps to restore the full power of choice and therefore freedom within you. You can use mindfulness to free yourself from the distractions, conditioning, addictions, habits, beliefs, and reactivity that limit you and obscure your true self. While a lot of people think of themselves as free—especially if they are living in what they consider to be a democracy—the reality is far from that—unless they are successfully practising mindfulness to be in conscious control of their attention, states of being, and identity.
How We Become Trapped—Even in a “Free” Society
The mind is a powerful tool, helping us to develop intelligence and knowledge, and to create amazing feats of achievement and ingenuity, as exemplified by advances in technology, science, and so-called civilisation. These feats of achievement are often cited as examples of how humankind has liberated itself from the yoke of primitive living.
Yet, when we look around us in our advanced societies with all the modern technological commodities available to us, including the smartphones, computers, and televisions that entrance us, can we really claim to be free? When we find ourselves stuck in the same reactive behaviour patterns year after year, continuing to support destructive and unsustainable patterns of living through our acts of commission or omission, with so much suffering surrounding us, can we really claim to be free?
Our consciousness becomes trapped the moment we cease to be present in our true selves and, instead, react to the thoughts and emotions passing through our minds. Often the process occurs automatically and unconsciously. We have 50,000 thoughts a day on average, each of them arising in our mind space and competing for our attention. How many of these thoughts do we let pass away mindfully, like ripples in a pond? And how many do we attach ourselves to and react to, thereby limiting our freedom?
The most insidious thoughts and emotions grow by feeding on our attention and creating a positive feedback loop that heightens our reactivity to them as they grow. Desires and fears are a prime example of this. They provide our lives with some kind of focus or validation, and so we lose our freedom to them through our attachment or resistance to them. We are fighting an internal war every day we resist facing our fears, are caught up in inner conflict, or sacrifice ourselves to addiction or distraction.
How Mindfulness Can Set You Free
Mindfulness sets you free by interrupting the automatic process of reactivity and bringing conscious awareness to what would otherwise be a largely unconscious behaviour pattern. Mindfulness gives you the freedom to choose where to direct your attention, rather than allowing that attention to be taken hostage by reactive thoughts and emotions. Once you have full choice where to place your attention, you can choose your thoughts, beliefs and feelings more freely, and choose how you behave, so that you can align to your true self and its core values. Being present in your centre through mindfulness is an important part of this, allowing you to align with and embody your true self more easily. Mindful and authentic living then becomes possible. And so does a more peaceful, sustainable, and fulfilling world, since all actions are a result of the state of mind that produces them.
The process of freeing your consciousness to be more your true self begins the moment you deautomatise and become aware that you always have choice, that you can consciously direct your attention, and that you are not your thoughts, emotions, or roles but are a centre of being and awareness. My Mindfulness of Breath Meditation is excellent for this purpose. With this heightened self-awareness, you can choose to change your automatic behaviour, become more mindful and emotionally intelligent, and align with your true self.
Where your freedom is held captive by attachments to desires or aversions to fears, the process may be a challenge. However, if you honour your true worth and develop enthusiasm and commitment to your authenticity, you will grow through self-development and break through these resistances in the fire of self-realisation. The stronger your metacognitive states are developed through mindfulness, the less of a challenge this will be. But, where enthusiasm, commitment, and a strong centre are yet to be built, you may fall back into a life of reactivity until you call upon your inner light and mindfully face the resistance with renewed enthusiasm and commitment.
Overcoming your resistances, so that you are no longer dominated by reactive attachments and aversions, requires boldness and can be intimidating—especially if you stand to lose something to which you are deeply attached. Most of us prefer comfort and would rather avoid upheaval and uncertainty. But within our greatest challenges lies our greatest reward—the reward of living authentically and becoming truly fulfilled through our self-realisation. Despite the temptations of your ego and the power of your reactive thoughts, you always have the choice to practise mindfulness to withdraw your attention from the contents of your mind and stay in alignment with your true self. This is where mindfulness bears its greatest fruits.
Mindfulness, when used with the right self-development strategy, is one of the most powerful techniques to release your inner blocks and enhance your wellbeing and fulfilment. Collectively, it can advance the consciousness of humankind and take us into the light age.
Next Step: Learn how mindfulness can free you from your life challenges and supercharge your self-development by booking a free Guidance Call.
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