How mindfulness empowers us?

Mindfulness is a tool that can be used to gain a better, more fulfilling life in many ways.   Being mindful means allowing yourself to be aware of the here-and-now, noticing qualities of your experience within boundaries and without judgment.  By practicing mindfulness, we can discover our power in many different ways.

Emotional Awareness/Control

When something happens in our lives, or we get swept up in our internal thoughts/emotions, it can easily cloud our judgment and feel like our emotions are running the show. Slowing down to become aware of these thoughts and emotions (without attaching too strongly or trying to escape them) gives us the ability to see them more clearly.  We can then start to ask questions such as, where did this come from? What triggered it?  What response do I want to cultivate?  Through asking these questions, we can zoom out to see the forest for the trees: what am I feeling, and what can I do about this? Observing allows us to gain space from our emotions and get to know what messages our emotions may be trying to send.

Improved Relationships

When mindfulness is applied in relationships, it can give people the power to choose how best to react to conflict or become triggered.  For example, imagine a scenario in which your partner asks for space.  You may initially feel as if you are wanted or not good enough and feel strong emotions of sadness and anger.  Taking a step back to recognize your emotional reaction at the moment gives you the chance to evaluate your feelings, recognize accuracies vs. inaccuracies with the interpretation of the trigger, and choose a helpful response vs. harmful.

Deeper Sense of Self

When we know our needs, understand how we operate and feel connected to ourselves, we can also put those things into the world.  Mindfulness does just that—it allows us to gain insight into our stuff.  Knowing yourself is the first step to accepting yourself.  And accepting yourself is a necessary step to loving yourself.   Showing up with that self-love in the world is empowering!  Mindfulness can help us reflect inward on what’s true instead of what we fear is true. 

Overall, mindfulness empowers us to live truest to our needs, values, and goals.  It can take a lot of practice and repetition, but so does anything worth it in our lives!