If You Want To Transform Your Life Don’t Invest In Mindfulness But In This
You can achieve a mindful life by simply paying more attention
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You probably know about mindfulness. Everybody talks about it.
Mindfulness is everywhere. Don’t you feel the same?
I even gave myself the gift of a whole conference experience with a thousand other mindful souls. Mindful business, mindful body, mindful marketing, mindful teaching, mindful world. The whole shebang. It was cool. No complaints.
But let me show you something better.
Do you also know about attention?
What is the difference?
Is that the same thing, or just another word?
I got swept away by the whole mindfulness wave. Loved it. (Still do). But I also started wondering and looking deeper into it, what the hell all the fuzz is about.
I have singled out another very valuable aspect that gets less attention. It’s Paying Attention.
Now, what does attention mean, and what does mindfulness mean? What is the difference and is it relevant to distinguish between these terms?
Mindfulness Commercialized?
So, let’s start with mindfulness.
Mindfulness is on everyone’s lips. There are magazines, courses, apps, guides, literature, conferences, talks, company programs, and products on mindfulness.
This is good. If the whole world were more mindful, we would all be better off.
And it confirms how many people seem to care about the topic. It looks like there is a “general longing, even hunger, for something elusive that we seem to need for a fulfilling life.”, writes Jon Kabat-Zinn, professor emeritus of medicine and founder of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program.
In essence, mindfulness seeks to express being present in the here and now and becoming more mindful of ourselves. To be more “present,” to develop a focused awareness of the moment.
Matthias Horx, the founder of the Future Institute, describes mindfulness as follows:
