Being Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the act of focusing on the present and preventing your mind from drifting off or from worrying about the future. It is also about being fully aware and attentive to the “now,” which refers to what you are currently doing or what you are currently thinking about.

I have a tremendously annoying tendency to let running thoughts occupied my mind whenever I am in the process of working on or completing a particular task. I would tell myself that I am indeed focused on the task at hand, but I know that is false and that I am in denial. To illustrate this, we can examine my poor study habits. For example, I would be working on my genetics homework, but I would be worried about studying for human anatomy. Negative thoughts such as, “I need to finish this assignment fast, so I can study for human anatomy,” “I have other assignments to complete in addition to this – I am running out of time!” or “I do not understand this assignment, I am going to fail my upcoming exam” would …show more content…
On this one particular Saturday, for example, I have decided to solely study for genetics. To prevent running thoughts from cluttering my mind, I made sure my desk was absent of materials that were not related to genetics. In essence, as I thought to myself, “If I can’t see other materials from other courses, then I don’t have to think about them.” With this method, I aimed to inhibit my mind from drifting off and to prevent myself from worrying about my other courses.

One quality of mindfulness that I have utilized was non-attachment. Whenever I did not understand a problem, I would detach myself from feeling frustrated. I allowed myself to calm down, to “chill the fuck out,” and to ultimately resist the urge to be fixated on this particular emotion. I reassured myself with, “It is okay to not understand a particular section. You can go into office hours for help. You need to move on in order to progress.