Mindfulness

Reading time : 4 minutes

All human pursuits and actions require some degree of focus and intentionality. If you are having a conversation, you need to be paying attention to what the other participants are saying – registering how you are going to respond. If you are conducting a scientific experiment, you need to aware of the current conditions, timings and factors that could influence your procedure. To grow and develop our ability in such areas, we should nurture and cultivate our mindfulness.

The NHS website describes mindfulness as:

‘paying attention to what is going on inside and outside ourselves, moment by moment.’ [1]

For some, such a trait might be more difficult, considering our default state-of-mind or mental ability. For example, someone with ADHD or Aspergers should surely be forgiven for not being able to sit in a lecture or be mindful in every conversation, which have varying levels of intricacy.

Nevertheless, the layer beneath the layer may reveal a path for all of us, one which enables every human being to develop mindfulness according to who we are:

Before tweaking our ability and skills in specific circumstances, the call to mindfulness tasks us with valuing our circumstance.

Do we see and feel the value of each moment placed before us in life, instead of everything just being either a stepping stone to something bigger, or a hindrance which bedraggles us deeper into a sense of despair?

All of us can take a step back and learn to value our everyday moments, no matter our innate skill to focus. Even if these moments are negative, mindfulness enables us to learn from them.

So, in a time when a mirage/matrix of exterior worlds and desires and floods us our minds and screens, it is a personal choice for each of us to practice mindfulness, leading to a bespoke growth in focus, through appreciating every day.

[1] https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/self-help/tips-and-support/mindfulness/ Date accessed: 03/07/2025