There is a huge wave of great initiatives and applications now available to help people with their mindfulness practices. Even in the organisations now, people are spending money or time to rejuvenate the wellbeing in the workspace through mindfulness trainings or programs.
I believe it is a beautiful shift towards the world being more conscious; people more aware and hence more connected.
However, though hugely beneficial to sit in silence everyday, this is NOT the only way to train our mind . We can train our mind with every interaction we have with others or the interactions that matter.
A regular tendency that many of us face when we are in conversation is “attentional blink”.
When we shift our focus from one object/ thing / person to another, a tiny gap in attention called attentional blink is created. It may last for less or may be half a second but for some it can be for longer duration.
We go to the office, have various conversations though sometimes we are in the conversation but we are not there. Our mind is thinking about the past event (what happened at home, wife, family) or going into the future or just focusing on something else but we are not there with that person who is talking to us.
A good practice for mindfulness – is not to just rely on apps and a deep mindfulness practice only but to focus on every conversation that we are engaged in – with the intention of full comprehension. Not focusing on correcting the other person, not making any judgements, not thinking about what to say next but deeply connected to every single word that is shared with the intention of “full comprehension” and nothing else.
If you develop that practice of deep listening, you will see a huge shift. Not only those attentional blinks will go down, you will be living in mindfulness practice on daily basis.
You would not need any candle light to focus on or any voice on an app but just the words in a dialogue will be your source of focus. If your mind shifts, bring it back and keep practicing.
In few week time you will realise that your “inner-talk” will calm down and you will be more connected to the people in your life and create not only a mindful mind but deeper long lasting relationships as well.
So, mindfulness practice is great but deeper listening even better; not only for yourself but for others in your world.