This excellent post by Leo Babauta ‘The Honest Guide to Mindfulness‘ reminds us that mindfulness – a highly trendy concept – is difficult and messy.
“If you’re new to mindfulness, it’s easy to get the wrong idea from all the marketing you’ll find online. Images of people at complete peace with the world and themselves, full of bliss, simply by sitting still and meditating for a few minutes … they are beautiful images, but they don’t tell the whole truth.”
It is hard to be mindful, and it will take substantial practice and exercise to reach a satisfactory mindfulness stage. Leo Babauta also underlines that it is very uncomfortable as it will real things you’d probably prefer to remain hidden.
This also means that probably much less people have reached a satisfactory level of mindfulness than what they advertise. Difficult is always filters out those that are really motivated and ready to put the effort. Much less people are probably truly mindful than what they say.
If you want to embrace mindfulness, be ready for quite a tough journey of introspection and seeing the world differently, which can be quite unsettling. Still it is quite a beneficial experience, just fasten your seat-belt!
