Mindful Awareness and the Sense of Self

Our society is often characterized as a selfish, “me first” driven culture. There’s certainly evidence to support this claim. However, there are also paradoxically many pieces of data that are contradictory to such a supposition. In the First World, Americans donate more to charity per capita than any other nation. The USA provides emergency support and supplies to any nation regardless of status in cases of disaster, and the US supports and defends charity and non-aligned relief agencies such as the Red Cross and Red Crescent when those agencies go into hostile areas. So what are we? Selfish? Saintly? Perhaps we’re neither. We might be more complicated than a few sentences of description can elucidate.

Future or forward thinking is highly prized in the USA and in the technological centers of America. However, when one is focusing on the future, the present can get lost. That’s a true pity because the only moment where we’re really alive is in the present. Right now, in this moment, you’re alive and you have vast power to affect everything you touch and everyone around you. But living in the present is not as easy as it sounds.

To be mindfully aware is to center yourself in the here and now. It is to be aware of what you’re doing at this very moment.  To know the sensations coming into your body, your brain. To feel with your skin. To be mindful is to pay attention to the right now. This is extremely difficult when so many corporations deploy new products and services, and are on to the next big thing before a new quarter rolls around.  Product and development cycles are getting reduced and the pressure’s on to think both creatively and out of the box. Oh, and if that’s not enough, let’s be creative, out of the box thinkersright now.  How’s that for pressure?

In the midst of this organized chaos comes a call for paying attention to the present moment. If the future is to be good, to be productive and satisfying, then the foundations must be laid in the present.  More than that:  on an individual level, how do we take control of our mental time focus and redirect it to the “here and now?”

Perhaps the first step in mindful awareness is a physical one, something so simple it might even seem insulting to you that I suggest this.  Here goes.  Attend to your breathing. Breathing isn’t some New Age concept that’s somehow tenuous.  It’s absolutely necessary for ongoing life, but not all breathing is created the same.

When people concentrate deeply and become absorbed in a non-physically laborious task, they tend to breathe shallowly, from the top on-third of the lungs. This type of breathing shortchanges us in several ways, but perhaps most importantly for knowledge workers; it denies the brain oxygen it critically needs. In fact, at any given time, the brain demands (and gets) 25% of all the fresh, oxygenated blood in the body to maintain bare minimum functioning. Advanced concentration over long periods of time—four to five hours—requires even greater amounts of concentration, and no—stopping at the new trendy “Air Bar” on the way home will not help.

What does help, then?  Deep, slow, regular breathing.  Even minute drops in oxygen levels change the balance of carbon dioxide and oxygen, promoting fuzzy thinking, brain fog, higher levels of distraction, and overall mental fatigue. Of course, lower amounts of oxygen also promote sleepiness and high distractibility.  Those about the last things knowledge and technology specialists and professionals need.

To be mindfully aware is to let our bodies register in our attention. Our breathing should be deep, beginning with the diaphragm, controlled by the abdominal muscles, not the chest cavity. Breathing needs to be slow, regular, deep and controlled. A deep breath should take 3 to 4 seconds, should be held for at least two seconds, and exhaled under control, taking 2 to 3 seconds. If all that counting seems a bit much, just remember: slow and steady. The ancient mantra of “count to 10 and take deep breaths” is true today as it ever was.

Don’t mistake this technique as merely a stress reducer, although it’s excellent for that purpose. Mindful awareness heightens your enjoyment of the moment.  After all, aren’t you doing worthwhile and interesting things all the time?  Ok, maybe not! But at the very least, you’re alive in the present, you’re experiencing the world and the universe in the present and the only way to affect the future is—in the present!  Can mindful awareness really be that simple? Let’s just say we’ve started out on the journey.  Mindful awareness has been a part of many philosophies for thousands of years, but only in the last twenty years has it been fine-tuned into a tool that reduces stress, kills worry, and enhances not only personal productivity, but individual levels of happiness.

With all that going for it, maybe you should consult a specialist in stress reduction who can teach you the techniques needed to get underway with this amazing way to maximize all the good that your life has to offer—right now in the here and now!