The Mindfulness Effect ~ What’s it like to be connected within? ~

When you hear the word MINDFULNESS, what images come to mind? Perhaps the image of sitting in meditation or practicing Zen may cross your thoughts. It might seem complex, but at its core, mindfulness is about connecting with your inner self.

In this blog post, I’d like to introduce the benefits of a lifestyle based on mindfulness and provide some base knowledge to understand this way of living.

Living in society, we often have our attention focused outward to our “external” environment (people & things, happenings, societal activities, etc.). This constant external focus can cause our emotions to fluctuate, influencing our actions and behaviors. With our awareness habitually directed outward, it’s common to attribute internal emotions to external factors existing in the environment.

However, blaming the external, seeking change in others, and experiencing emotional turmoil, dilemmas, or even worsening situations can lead to further exhaustion, both mentally and physically. I’m sure most people have experienced this at some point.

Mindfulness, on the other hand, involves keeping our awareness inward to “be connected with our inner self” while living in society.

By doing so:

• We become less affected by external events, making it easier to control our emotions.

• Problem-solving regarding events in our lives becomes more accessible.

• We become more aware of information and opportunities essential for our happiness.

Therefore, living mindfully comes with significant advantages.

You might wonder, “What does it mean to ‘be connected with myself’?” This concept might feel vague and intangible. When you connect with society, you deal with the visible and experiential realm, such as people and events happening around you. However, connecting with yourself means you deal with your consciousness or mind, an abstract and ambiguous subject. 

Yet, in our current era, we live in a world where “tangible” and “intangible’ coexist. Let me illustrate it using the example of devices like computers and cellphones. “Connecting yourself with your internal self” resembles “accessing data stored on electronic devices”.

Data, whether in the form of sound, images, or text-based information, is intangible. Regardless of the vast amount of data, once the folder or the device is closed, it becomes invisible. While hidden inside the device, these remain unseen until accessed. In our daily lives, we interact with an enormous amount of information, from checklists and schedules to timers and music, all stored on devices, hidden from our view.

However, being aware of what is stored and knowing how to access it is crucial. Without this awareness, such data doesn’t really exist. Vast information exists but only if you know of its existence and ways to access it because it is a non-physical existence. This analogy mirrors our relationship with our inner selves.

Consider our bodies as a device – whether a computer or cellphone. These are tangible, material entities we can physically interact with. Now, envision our consciousness as the storage where information is stored on these devices. This storage has unlimited capacity and can hold information, emotions, thoughts, feelings, words, memories, videos, images, etc.

Just like the information stored on devices, our consciousness harbors a wealth of information and memories. Typically, these remain hidden, just like data stored on devices, but can be accessed through our awareness. Though unlike devices, there are no convenient physically visible buttons for direct access. Initially challenging, connecting with oneself becomes easier with practice. Imagine seeing an electronic device for the first time in your life. You wouldn’t know what’s in there or how to get anything from it, but once you learn that “stuff” is stored digitally, the existence of the “stuff” is born. Then you would learn how to access the “stuff”. At first, it’s difficult to understand the process, but practice makes perfect. 

Living a mindful life, connected with yourself, operates on the same principle. That’s why, recognizing our bodies as devices and our consciousness as unlimited storage that holds so much more than you can even imagine is essential preliminary knowledge for using mindfulness in our lives.

In the next blog, I’ll talk about how to connect with yourself and how that can navigate you to problem-solving and help you catch insights for your happiness. Thanks for reading! 

Chika