Step Three

​The previous two steps of our journey have introduced ways in which you can stabilize the mind and focus your attention. This helped laying the groundwork for everyday mindfulness—the type of awareness that tiptoes into your daily life and helps you become fully conscious of the world as it is, rather than how you wish it could be. In fact, we spend too much time thinking about the past or the future that we end up missing out on the present moments that make up our lives. By beginning to look into these moments, we become aware of the love and happiness that actually surround us. The mind tends to lead us into thinking that experiences can only be considered either pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. We experience wanting to avoid what the mind labels as unpleasant, cling to what is perceived as pleasant and ignore what the mind judges as neutral. Mindfulness practice can moderate this process, that causes stress and difficulties, by teaching the ability to manage awareness and to recognize that thoughts are not necessarily truths. It can help you notice what appears in your stream of awareness without causing emotional reactions, judgements or autopilot behaviours. This doesn’t mean that you won’t experience suffering or sorrow anymore, but you will now know not to consume your energy on patterns of judging and avoiding.