The most powerful and effective tool to develop and experience Mindfulness

• Have you also wondered whether mindfulness is difficult or simple to achieve?
• Are you tired of hearing or reading this word over and over again in multiple contexts?
• Do you want to once and for all learn to develop it?

Read on, if your answer to any one of those questions is yes.

Let us begin with the question:

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness can be simply defined as the practice of being attentive to the present moment – observing what is happening within and around you. This requires a constant conscious effort and the practice or observation of the experiences one is having.

In our earlier posts, we have mentioned the significance of Hypnosis and other related sciences like NLP.

Hypnosis is often defined as a state of hyper suggestibility.

When a person is in a hypnotic state, their mind is more receptive to suggestions. This enables the person to achieve changes in their emotional states and automatic behaviours more easily.

These suggestions are based on what was agreed upon by the client during the interview.

However, the person can also use self-hypnosis to make suggestions to one’s own self.

You may be wondering…

What Hypnosis or Self Hypnosis has to do with Mindfulness?

Whenever any suggestions are given to the unconscious mind, the mind commences adapting to the suggestions, which later becomes a habit or a pattern. And thus, any automatic behaviour can be changed using suggestions in a hypnotic state.

These suggestions can also be made so as to help a person become more mindful or aware of their surroundings or more observant of the actions they are demonstrating. This, of course, won’t be a day’s task!

However, with constant practice, one can definitely achieve it.

But, the question of why one needs to develop mindfulness is yet to be answered, right?

Why one needs to develop mindfulness?

Mindfulness can be very useful in a number of ways. Here are the top two applications according to me.

1. The first application of Mindfulness is a Discovery Tool

   There are times when people experience emotional hindrances to what they wish to do or achieve. If they aren’t aware of the source of these blockages, it might be difficult to overcome them.If they work with a mental health professional, the first step would be to help bring the mental or emotional block to the individual’s awareness. The next step will be to identify the source in a collaborative effort with the person.Being mindful could have helped the person identify the block and the source by themselves.Now, does this mean that mindfulness would allow you to be independent or not visit a mental health professional for help?Not always.Because one may need help to overcome or resolve the mental or emotional hindrance even after identifying its source.

2. The second application of Mindfulness is to develop Sensory Acuity

   “Sensory Acuity” – one of the most important success principles and an important concept in “Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)”.Sensory Acuity helps an individual to calibrate more with the observable changes in one’s self or others. For example, if you visit a doctor and say that you’re suffering from a stomach ache, the doctor cannot just prescribe medicine on what they think could be the cause of the stomach ache.The doctor would actually try to observe noticeable changes in the body and question the patient to arrive at a diagnosis. Similarly for an individual, observing noticeable changes in oneself can actually facilitate desirable change.Observing changes within or around oneself is being mindful, isn’t it? That means mindfulness can help you develop sensory acuity and vice-versa.

Now that we have looked at the key applications of mindfulness, let us shift our focus to how we can get started with mindfulness?

You can get started with mindfulness using a simple technique.

Starting tomorrow, observe or notice 3 things which you see on your way to work or school or supermarket.

You may notice a completely new structure built on the way that had skipped your attention before, or you may find a new billboard somewhere. Maybe other things that were there but didn’t come to your attention.

Because of a lack of mindfulness these things did not come to your attention earlier.

However, when you consciously start to practice it in small ways, like the exercise above, you’ll become aware of many new things which you weren’t aware of earlier. This itself could mark the beginning of a new change, leading to other changes that you have always desired.

As we reach the end, let us finally look at the application of Mindfulness in Coaching and Therapy.

The technique that I have just described is just the starting point.

There are many advanced processes and techniques that can help you develop the skills to become more mindful and experience the power of mindfulness.

If you are a therapist or a coach, you can also use these techniques with your clients to help them develop mindfulness, and get started on a journey that can literally help them experience trance-formation in their lives.

At ICHARS, we have integrated mindfulness into the eclectic approach to coaching and psychotherapy. So if you are a coach or a therapist or looking forward to becoming one, you check out our Cognitive Hypnotic Coaching or Cognitive Hypnotic Psychotherapy Diploma.