Mindfulness Archives - Finding my Nature

14/04/202014/04/2020

Consciously do nothing and have the best outcome

Pressure to do something

I didn’t want to write this article. When I started this blog it was fun, then a few days of inactivity I thought I should write something new and I started to feel pressure about it. But whenever pressure comes, there comes resistance as well. The bigger the pressure, the stronger is counterforce against it.

What I really wanted was entirely different – go outside, get some fresh air, walk a few miles. Consciously do nothing and have the best outcome of that. Possibly take some pictures and have fun doing photo editing later. So, this was what I finally did and let me share that with you:

This is what I really like – forests, woods, mountains – occasionally big city life as well, as counterbalance.

I think I like all those activities because they come naturally, I don’t have to them – nobody forces me to go outside, I have no deadlines to publish my pictures and so on. Total freedom.

I believe this topic is worth exploring little bit further. I just need to grab a cup of coffee before writing next chapter (and before I decide to ditch coffee for long time again – read one old story about it here: 10 days without coffee)

Recipe for quality

Fine, let’s continue with this story. During the last few weeks, I thought a lot about our approach to any activities we do. This is what I’d like to highlight here – the focus was not on actions taken but on our perception of them. It doesn’t really matter if we talk about small, usual tasks like declutter a desk or big projects like building new spacecraft. If we talk about attitude towards those activities, the focus is somewhere else.

When we realise that the same rules apply to whatever we do, we’ll understand that it is not the activity itself and not even scale and complexity of it which has influence on our success or failure. It is also not the thought about success itself. It is all about how much we’d like to do it and how much fun we’ve got doing that. Really. Have all those pictures in this article as example – can you feel excitement in them?

On the other hand – whenever you find poorly assembled furniture, low quality equipment, unusable software – how much excitement do you think there was among people making them?

Instead of next chapter, have some more pictures:

More pictures

Where do you put your energy?

So, is there any point doing anything you don’t want to? Regardless of all “rational” reasoning – if there is any type of pressure coming with it – where do you think your energy goes in such situations – creation or resistance? Doing stuff or finding excuses to avoid that? Focus on quality or quick finish to not come back to it anymore? What if you put your energy into something you really enjoy instead?

Fancy some more pictures of nature?

How does it relate to mindfulness?

Mindfulness is about being here and now. Would you say you’re entirely here while thinking about doing anything else? My view on mindfulness is that it’s about living in harmony with our own nature. About being fully aware why we do what we do.

I don’t have to write summary

Or anything at all. None of us must do anything. Except of breathing. Drinking and eating sometimes. Do whatever you enjoy, ditch everything else.

Option to consciously do nothing is a great alternative to living in conflict within yourself. So, if I don’t write here anymore, find me on Instagram instead: https://www.instagram.com/findingmynature/

13/03/202013/03/2020

Connect with nature, connect with yourself

Welcome to the real world

If you live in countryside or somewhere in the mountains, you can probably skip this article, as most of what I could say, is probably obvious to you. If you’ve lived all your life, like me, in a big city, it can be entirely different. City life can be exciting – there possibility to meet new people, go for all night parties, immerse in fascinating job projects, go to cinema, concert, art gallery and so on. Everything in beautifully architected buildings, wonderfully designed grid of streets, pavements and colourful lights. Furthermore, some beauty can be even found in post-industrial buildings, partially destroyed, covered by graffiti, reminding of past years of greatness. All the world people created, built and are proud of.

Outside of that brick, concrete and tarmac world, there’s another one – made of trees, mountains, rivers, lakes and more. The world created by Nature – place where big city rules do not apply. Where’s no need to rush, to seek artificial excitement, to chase after money and be actively engaged in all activities known only in towns. Like watching TV to get frustrated about politics or your football club losing another match. As there’s no politics or football clubs in the nature, simple.

When we go to such places, we lose all benefits of civilised world, what can be really frustrating at the beginning, as we can feel we lost something we used to have. On the other hand, we also lose all problems known to civilised places. Like traffic, pollution, stress, anxiety, “rat race”, politics, crime and many more. Go to any place not inhabited by humans and you realise all those issues are non-existent there. Fot that reason, wherever you find a place which isn’t man-made creation, which is there as it used to be for hundreds or even thousands of years, you realise you can feel absolutely free there. That’s the real world given to us by this planet.

Connect with nature, disconnect from…

Should we all leave cities and move to some remote locations then? Possibly. But that would be quite radical step, which only a few are either brave or desperate enough to do. Most of us, including myself, wouldn’t. If we aren’t ready for such revolution in life, we can still benefit from the wisdom of the Nature. Anything needed is just to find a spot outside a town, or at least a closest park. Stop and observe. Maybe sit down, disconnect from any problems of daily life and just observe. Start to realise how do we feel about what we see. Start to realise WHAT we see. How any other life on this planet is similar or different to ours? Start to understand how connected or disconnected we are from this entire world.

Connect with yourself

When we begin to notice entire life around us, we’re starting to be more focused and more present. So we’re getting opportunity to forget, at least for a moment, about all our problems rooted in the past. Or related to the future. We’re able to cut off this stream of thoughts filling our heads with constant problems, solutions, memories, plans and any kind of internal chatter. It just happens – we begin to connect with our surroundings. We’re more aware and we’re more here. That’s what some people call mindfulness (find something about it in article Be here, be now. Why mindfulness is bad for you).

When we are more integrated with our surroundings, there’s one interesting side effect – we’re getting more connected with ourselves. Consequently, we’re getting more conscious of our presence here, of our thoughts and feelings. Also, more or less consciously, we feel somewhere inside that we are integral part of this world. We’re closer to our true selves. And overall happier.

Be sceptical

I may be right or wrong – unless you’ve got similar experience, there’s no real reason to believe in all written above. Be sceptical. Go outside and try this yourself. Try a few times to be sure. And if you can spare a few minutes, leave a comment below, to share your findings.

02/03/202002/03/2020

Fighting my nature vs finding my nature

I want to be a better person

This thought comes to many of us at some point in our lives. Sometimes not just once but in many different circumstances and on multiple points of lifetime line. An idea to improve, to fight all the weaknesses, to set targets and do everything to get what we want. If these goals are positive, all our efforts seem to be right. We’re working on being better than we are right now. Sounds good?

Myself in the future

When we get into that mindset, all our thoughts are focused on the image of ourselves in the future. On the person we want to become one day, in the next month, a year or 10 years from now. Someday I’ll be perfect. I’m learning, improving, doing one million activities to be that amazing, wonderful human being. Some day. Does it still sound good?

Myself now

All that focus on self-improvement to achieve those ambitious goals have often one common characteristic – we are not entirely happy right now. The more unhappy we are, the bigger need for change. We may want to improve our look, physical strength, want to be healthier, get a better job, bigger house, be better partner / parent and so on. Although all that seems to be right at the first glance, it often comes from our internal feeling that we aren’t good enough in these areas. In other words – we don’t accept who we really are at present moment. But we’re going to be perfect one day and we’ll be happy.

Fighting my nature

If all mentioned above is true, if we don’t accept our imperfect nature, we put ourselves in the constant fight. Fight against ourselves. But the nature of every battle is that someone must lose. If we undertake the battle against ourselves, who will eventually lose that skirmish?

Finding my nature

Have you ever met one person who was entirely perfect? Not for a moment but perfect all the time?

What would you say about one crazy idea to switch focus from weaknesses to strengths? To all our positive sides, everything what’s good in us RIGHT NOW? (I wrote about here and now in previous article: Be here, be now. Why mindfulness is bad for you.) What about other crazy idea to accept that all those weak points as simply part of our nature? Like we accept that day and night or Summer and Winter are part of the nature around us. The truth is, we are entirely complete with all our traits – if we want to get rid of unwanted ones, we risk losing our internal integrity. With acceptance of our true nature, we have that completeness. We’ve got happiness – not some day but here and now. There’s nothing more to do, really.

So, would that mean self-improvement is a wrong idea?

Yes. When we think of it as a way to change ourselves because we don’t accept who we are and try to be someone else. That is illusion, something distant and unreal. We can chase that entire life and live in misery forever.

And no. When we undertake any activities in line with our nature, not against it, any efforts can just multiply joy and happiness we already have. We’re improving then naturally, it’s no longer a fight but fun. If you do anything like playing instrument, painting, programming, blogging, running or anything else just because you like it, go for it. Enjoy it. Improvement will come as side effect, but your happiness will no longer depend on it.

22/02/202022/02/2020

Be here, be now. Why mindfulness is bad for you.

Be where? Beware.

Have you ever walked looking into your mobile and almost hit someone or something accidentally? Or maybe, if you’re not so attached to this small device – did it happen to you that your thoughts were so far away that you barely noticed what was around you? Just be honest. It happened to me, it happened to everyone, at least once in a lifetime. Or let’s be really honest – that happens more often then we realise – during long journeys, boring meetings but also during many usual activities which we tend to do on autopilot. The point is, we’re not fully here at those moments. Physically – yes, mentally – not at all. Our thoughts are in much more interesting places.

Here.

All those places where our mind wander have one common characteristic – our presence there is not real. For some reason we choose to be in these imaginary locations, forgetting entirely of the place where we really are at the moment – here. That would mean, we’d rather be somewhere else, with different people, doing something we don’t do right now. And we keep thinking about that, thinking that it could make us happy. The biggest trap of our mind – illusion, that we need to keep searching for happiness, as it’s always somewhere else. Never here, never now. And never truly real. Beware.

Now.

Do you remember that time when your life was wonderful? Or, if you think it’s never been – do you imagine that it could be in the future (find something about planning here: Planning is great, but…)? Have you ever spent time thinking of these past moments? Dreaming about future happiness which could appear one day? Another biggest trap – illusion, that whatever best for us already happened or hasn’t happened yet. In both cases, it’s definitely not now.

Mindfulness.

If you’ve decided to read this article, it’s quite likely that you’ve already started to be aware that something with this mind wandering is wrong. So, mindfulness is all about that awareness. About being present. Realising that the only reality we’ve got is here and now. And that here and now absolutely nothing is wrong. It may be hard to believe but I’ll give more light on that in other articles. Or, if you’ve got some experience in this area – leave a comment, reading them is always inspiring.

It’s bad for you.

If you decide to live here and now, you can lose all that extraordinary times and places where your mind feel comfortable. You’ll detach yourself from the bright future and wonderful past and from all those amazing places and activities you’re thinking of. That’s a lot to sacrifice and majority of people are not ready for it. I’m not entirely sure if I am myself.

Or is it?

Changing our mindset to be always focused on present moment can lead to amazing discoveries. It allows to realise that we don’t really need to look back or wait for miracles to happen. That we can be happy just now. That we’ve got everything we need, although we tend to ignore that. It’s about opening eyes and starting to notice what a great world we’ve got around – just now. Is it worth to give it a go?