MINDFULNESS

LIFE IS NOW:
MINDFULNESS AND AWARENESS PRACTICES

By mindfulness we mean "the ability to relate to the experience in the present, intentionally, in a non-judgmental way, moment by moment". We could talk about mindfulness in the daily scenario of our existence, built starting from a participatory and non-prejudicial observation of the mental states that constantly cross us and the stimuli we receive from the environment that surrounds us. Cultivating awareness means not taking the outcome of an experience for granted, moving between habits without letting oneself go to an active autopilot even when not needed, or leaving room for the possible amazement that emerges from the novelty or the rediscovery of lost flavors. It is no coincidence that M's first exercise concerns a sensory experience that moves in a known field, but imagining to be alien to it. Proust's well-known phrase that invites us to have new eyes with which to look at things of all time shows us a way to walk the paths of our experience in a non-obvious way, open to the wonder of discovery and to the ever new gaze of a child.
     

The road to happiness passes through us, through us, through us. Never obvious and demanding, it requires a commitment made with ourselves, a search that looks outside, but only after having looked inside. Likewise, the path to well-being passes through the integrity and integration of the mind and body, seen as expressions of an inseparable unity that has its center of gravity in the breath. The practices of conscious breathing become an active opportunity for that search for inner calm and health that motivate the request for help to "get better". Meditation by M thus offers itself as a privileged tool to achieve that benefit that derives from abiding in inner calm, a goal that can only be reached through the knowledge of how our mind works and how to train it and guide it to change.
   

Together we will learn to follow the waves of our breath and to anchor ourselves in the present between the ever-changing seasons of our thoughts and emotions.
We will learn that each of us has the tools for "self-care", that it is possible to stay in contact with negative thoughts and emotions without being swallowed up by them, but letting them pass through our consciousness to be aware of them and find the answers necessary to cope with them. , without reacting in that mode of urgency that feeds our stress and the vicious circuit of suffering.
   

We will learn that kindness is an act of welcoming that also concerns the relationship with ourselves and that judgment should not be confused with discernment and that words can be like stones, but they are not stones.
We will try how it is possible to achieve calm, as a place to stay in safety, following a road paved with actions, rather than intentions. It is necessary to be ready to listen and "pay attention to what happens, as it happens, without exercising preferences" and that these words will gradually become clearer and more meaningful as the practice continues.
     

A sentence from the Talmud reads:

“If I'm not for myself, who will it be for me?
If I am for myself alone, what am I?
If not now, when?".
   

Life is now, the beginnings can be infinite, every moment is the right one, let's start from here.

Giuseppe La Face

Giuseppe La Face, born Sant'Agata militello ME 13.02.67, psychologist-psychotherapist, Asp Palermo outpatient specialist for the Mental Health and Drug Addiction Service in prison, sports psychologist, Mindfulness meditation instructor on the MBCT model of Isimind Italia, Yoga Teacher (trainee)

Freelance activity, he has worked in socio-work reintegration projects aimed at people with social fragility, trainer and supervisor of private social and voluntary associations, has coordinated for two years the Damage Reduction services for Td and Mst of the Italian Red Cross, Provincial Committee of Palermo.