Making Mindfulness a Sustainable Habit.

Mindfulness, a state of awareness of something, has numerous benefits. These include enhanced self-control and ability to concentrate, lower stress levels, clear thinking, and the ability to express kindness and compassion. Becoming mindful sounds easy but maintaining it for sustained periods is hugely challenging. There are many different methods of mindfulness that promise to help you live in the moment, but only we can supply the ‘x-factor,’ which is the sustainability of the practice.

There are two components to mindfulness. One is the ability to be subjectively aware, and the other is the object of that awareness, which could be a thought or an action. Undoubtedly, keeping our attention on our thoughts and actions will slow down and relax the mind. The reason mindfulness does not easily lend itself to mastery is the continual tension between the two components of mindfulness. Subjective awareness demands stillness and concentration, while the object of our awareness, usually thoughts and actions, is in continual movement. It is like trying to aim an arrow at a moving target. By the time the arrow leaves the bow, the target has moved.

Regarding thoughts as the object of awareness, there are two complicating factors. Besides the distracting movement of thought, we also must contend with their contents. Thoughts are unpredictable. One moment they may bring up pleasant experiences. The next moment it may be fear or anxiety-provoking content. Doing two things simultaneously, which are maintaining awareness and developing a non-reactive mentality, is challenging.

In developing mindfulness, it is easier to be attentive to the breath or actions such as walking than to focus on our thoughts. However, due to the repetitive nature of breathing or walking, we quickly lose our focus. After some time, our interest wanes as the activity lulls the mind into boredom.

If we can bridge the disconnect between subjective awareness and the object of our attention, mindfulness will crystallize into a sustained habit. When we look at a page of text, our attention naturally gravitates towards the written matter, and we ignore the space around the text. When our attention is on the emptiness around the text, there is a subtle shift in the mind. Since we don’t need the help of our thoughts to interpret a blank page, maintaining awareness becomes more manageable. Zen monks practice staring at a blank wall for extended periods, a technique devised by Bodhidharma, a Buddhist monk who lived in ancient times.

Conceptualizing the mind as a blank page on which thoughts are temporarily “printed” will help us separate thoughts and recognize the gaps between them. If we closely observe, although thoughts appear to be one contiguous stream, there are plenty of gaps between thoughts. We are not accustomed to recognizing these gaps, which give us a glimpse of the fundamental nature of the mind, emptiness. Becoming aware of this emptiness by focusing on the space between thoughts may seem hard at first, but once we recognize a few, it becomes second nature to connect our awareness with the empty gaps between thoughts. These content-free areas are the same, unlike thoughts which vary from minute to minute.

The mind takes our attention and transfers it from one thought to another. By focusing on the space between thoughts, we break this chain of custody and regain our power of concentration. Space does not have movement; it is objects in space that move. Therefore, it is easier to become mindful of the space between thoughts—both the subject and object are silent and still.

We can practice such awareness of the gaps between thoughts anywhere and at any time. As we grow in our practice, we learn more about the essential nature of the mind, emptiness. Thoughts and experiences are merely an overlay on that emptiness. Once we become adept at becoming aware of the foundation of the mind, thoughts and experiences will trouble us less. The jerky movements of thoughts and the rough transition between them will disappear. Watching the arc of any thought will be as smooth as the rising in the east, silently moving across the sky and finally setting on the western horizon.

Awareness of the silent gaps between thoughts will help make mindfulness a sustainable practice. Each moment spent in this practice is a permanent building block that will eventually make us mindful all through life’s continually changing experiences.