My Yahoo! + Movable Type Blog

I find it interesting that when I do regular mindfulness exercises, it is called a practice. For me, that is actually an appropriate term, because I am "practicing" a skill that I will use throughout my day. The purpose of the mindfulness practice is to make the skill of being mindful available to me during my interactions at a meeting or as I am encountering a difficult problem, when I am relating to the people in my life who are closest to me, or even when i am making a choice about what to buy. When I am able to pay attention to what is happening in my life, right in the present moment, I am able to make decisions that are better. Living like this is clearly a better choice, but it is difficult to do. My mindfulness practice is a time when I build the skills necessary to do it better. I learn to notice the patterns of thought that I get caught in that lead me to choices that are not healthy for me, and I learn how to break that cycle and let go of bad habits so that I can choose better. The practice is meaningless if it does not translate into the way I conduct myself throughout the day. But it is very important when I use it to get better and better at the skills of healthy thinking. We get better at what we practice. John Weaver, Psy.D.