“When you touch one thing with deep awareness, you touch everything. The same is true of time. When you touch one moment with deep awareness, you touch all moments.” Thich Nhat Hanh
Mindfulness may be defined as ‘the ability to be mindful of a particular object of focus that we are choosing to focus on in the present moment’.
Two common objects of focus that are used in mindfulness practice are focusing on the breath or observing sensation in the body.
A key aspect of mindfulness is that in the observation of the object of focus or ‘anchor’ we do not try to change the object of focus but rather we observe it as it is. This observation of the object as it is, helps to develop what can be called non-resistance or allowing.
Benefits of Mindfulness
Practising mindfulness whilst doing our best to not react to or judge what we are observing, begins to unravel any unhelpful automatic patterns of reacting and responding. This develops our ability to see things as they are without any filters of beliefs.
According to the Avatamsaka Sutra, “The one contains the all.”, Thich Nhat Hanh. This explains how by focusing on one object, our mind begins to permeate all areas of life experience. This assists in taking us into the state where we are more unified with the source part of ourselves in which we know our connection to everything.
A further benefit of practising mindfulness is that life takes on a greater richness as we experience each moment with more presence or what could be referred to as more of who we are.
Finally, as mindfulness develops our ability to concentrate or focus, it also improves the ease and effectiveness with which we can do other Law of Attraction exercises.
Creating vs. Mindfulness
Rather than thinking about creating vs. mindfulness, it seems to be that creating ‘and’ mindfulness are beneficial. Whilst the Law of Attraction is often considered a method for creating our future, I see mindfulness as a very valuable component of a Law of Attraction practice.
By having a mindfulness practice there are the benefits of being happier and more focused in the present moment however the greater allowing and non-resistance of the present moment also creates a state in which positive transformation can automatically occur.
Practising the other Law of Attraction techniques of focusing on what we would like to experience in the future in addition to mindfulness, assists us in creating what isn’t currently in our experience.
What seems to be an optimum state for creating what is wanted, is having a subtle balance between not resisting our current experience and also focusing on what we want to experience and how we want to feel in the future. This can be achieved by having regular, separate practices of mindfulness meditation in addition to practising focusing techniques.