Mindfulness is a method that I have been attempting to implicate in my daily life recently. First, to understand how to implicate this, I had to know exactly what is mindfulness.

By definition, mindfulness is “the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.”

By being mindful, we are limiting the distractions we have around us that we are susceptible to, such as scrolling on social media for hours or even just zoning out into the distance, which is something I do often. When this occurs, this is called having a lapse in meta-awareness. Meta-awareness is when you are fully aware of what your mind is doing, and experiencing “zoning out” is considered a lapse. When I regain focus and realize that I have been staring into the distance for several moments, that is a moment of meta-awareness.

Per a research study that was conducted around 2010, the average adult American spends 47% of their time awake not paying attention to what they are doing. Along with the average American in this study, each one of them reported that they were significantly less happy. The title of this research study is “A Wandering Mind is an Unhappy Mind.” According to another research study conducted in 2018, there was a reported significant incline in ADHD in children in the US within the last decade. Along with the many reasons as to why this would occur, the main focus is on this increase in distractibility.

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of distractibility is my cell phone and social media. I spent the majority of March this year taking a break from my social media. This allowed me to stay more focused on my college work, my marriage, my relationships with my friends, family, and dogs, encouraged mobility and also increased my motivation. Limiting my screen time and access to social media also made me feel like I had more time during my day to accomplish more tasks.

That was an example of me practicing mindfulness; limiting my distractions and becoming more aware of what I am doing and how I am spending my time. Another benefit from practicing mindfulness includes a decrease in loneliness and an increase in happiness. Paying more attention to how I was spending my time and decreasing my distractions allowed me to pursue deeper relationships, check more tasks off my to-do list, and actually helped me focus and feel more present with my college work, which, in turn, increased my happiness and satisfaction with myself and decreased my loneliness.

Mindfulness can be practiced in the way I described, but can also be practiced in forms such as meditating, becoming sensibly aware of your surroundings, not allowing judgement for the moment/experience regardless if it is a good or bad moment/experience, learning to embrace things as they are, and remembering to be patient with yourself. It is easy to become frustrated when you’ve tried regaining focus several times throughout the day, but having a negative mentality about yourself is a prescription for depression, which mostly contradicts the action of becoming more mindful.

Mindfulness, as mentioned, is an ability that is available to us daily, but is much easier to access when it is practiced daily. Practicing this can improve our mind and change our world in ways such as increasing academic achievement, developing a stronger sense of purpose, and increasing productivity and focus, which are all traits and characteristics that we can use to benefit ourselves, our communities, and our country to implement change.

My encouragement is to practice mindfulness. Just a few minutes daily if we incorporate it into our routine could make mindfulness more accessible. Being more mindful does not take any extensive practice and offers no risks.

Below, I will leave the tag for the Ted Talk that I referenced for this post, as I believe it will be informal in deepening our understanding of mindfulness, the benefits, and how to practice it.