Mindfulness is a popular phrase referring to hyperpresent states that can be achieved with meditation practice. Techniques taught by practitioners familiar with Buddhist practice and/or yogi philosophy are extremely useful, particularly, given the busyness of contemporary life. However, meditative states are states that we often spontaneously experience under a variety of conditions. How often have you heard the admonition; ‘stop and smell the roses’? Children often do so, it is we who often forget.

I often caution parents to take care if their child seems to be ‘mindlessly’ fiddling with some object. The child may well be, intuitively,  taking what I call a ‘Buddhist pause’ , a rest from the mental demands of engaging a complex exterior world. It behooves us all to take a ‘Buddhist pause’ from time to time.

First and foremost, a ‘pause’ creates the conditions for us to witness our own interior processing. Thoughts and feelings are omnipresent; efforts to suppress them are necessarily shortlived. A disciplined raja yoga practice allows us to witness our thoughts as though we are sitting upon the bank of a river watching  the stream of our own consciousness. Nuances of accompanying emotionality become apparent. During these moments we do nothing less than witness the business of being.

Secondarily, any and all opportuntites for us to influence the course of that internal activity exists in real time only. Only, as we catch the moment, can we discern the patterns that drive our internal states; we can catch ourselves in the act of filtering and relax filters (attending to more) or strengthen filters (attending to less); we can catch ourselves in the act of analyzing events with more or less bias, or, on the basis of questionable assumptions.

Only as we catch the moment, and are mindful, can we exercise the power we possess to wilfully influence the architecture of our own mental processing system. Only as we catch the moment can we exercise the power we possess to revisit assumtions about the world that underly our real time thinking. Often we discover that those assumptions predispose us to error. This is not surprising; those assumptions are born of conclusions drawn at the ripe old age of 5 or 6 0r 7, etc.

Note: People who’s patterns predispose them to repeat acts that ill serve them, (e.g frequent use of alcohol), often self correct with mindfulness alone. People who often reach for an alcoholic drink may, with mindfulness in the moment, find that they are indeed hungry or thirsty. Following a snack or non-alcoholic beverage, their inclination to drink alcohol is often absent or greatly reduced.

Mindfulness in and of itself is restful. Mindfulness also allows us to create moments for ourselves consciously. Conscious overide of otherwise unconsciously driven streams of consciousness can affect the probabiility dynamics operating in the ‘implicate order’.