Mindfulness is the opposite of mindlessness!

In this week’s episode of “are you actually serious right now Critter?” I need to come clean about the fact that I’ve never understood what it means to be mindful.

Mindfulness is so fetch right now. Everyone is raving about mindfulness meditation and “being present” and it all seemed fluffy and confusing to me. I even read The Power of Now which struck me as long winded woowoo nonsense.

Then last week I heard a definition that clicked for me:

Mindfulness is a skill, generated most commonly through meditation, where you learn to see what’s happening in your head right now, clearly, so that you don’t get yanked around by it.

Dan Harris

Aha! And that’s why it’s the opposite of mindlessness. Being mindless means being yanked around by what’s happening in your head without seeing it clearly.

Being mindless means reacting, and being mindful means responding. Respond, don’t react.

What I’ll do with this embarrassingly late realization is yet to be seen.