Curiosity, playfulness, softness and fun in mindfulness

Mindfulness is a form of brain training. Training attention to where we want it to be. As an example, if we use our breath as an anchor to focus our attention as our attention wanders, we notice our attention has wandered. We notice our reaction, and we return our attention to the sensation of breathing. We use the breath as an anchor as our attention wanders. We notice that our attention has wandered, we notice our reaction, and we return our attention to the sensation of breathing. When we are practicing mindfulness, we repeat this cycle over and over again, and with each repetition, we further strengthen the neural pathways in our brain connected with this activity. How we do this is really important. If we do this with frustration and with excess effort, we end up becoming tense, which triggers our sympathetic nervous system, flooding our system with fight or flight hormones, and we fail to reduce our physiological state down to more of a resting state. Our mind will continue to feed its own state of stress and mental activity. Won't calm down. I often liken this process to puppy training. We need to cultivate an attitude of curiosity, playfulness, softness, and fun. If we get angry with the puppy whenever its attention wanders, we just end up with a frightened puppy. We need to be playful, make the learning process light and fun in the same way we
need to do this with our own mind when practicing mindfulness.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bxw4IYW1eE