20220408 - Watching Breath

Mind the gap Mindfulness is the gap between input and response in which we can bring in our wiser parts. If we don’t have this gap, we are merely reacting to life. Auto-pilot mode. Without this gap, you are not aware of why you are thinking and acting the way you are, you are simply letting the automatic internal program run. This is a great way of saving energy, but it’s not a very useful way to live, because those automatic reaction patterns is what is causing much of our suffering in life. If you are like me, you have done things that you didn’t want to do, e.g. opening youtube when it’s time for bed (one of my favourites), using mean comments in arguments, blaming your partner for your own short-comings, engaging in self-destructive patterns, etc. You can look back on your decision and see that your choice didn’t serve you, or anyone else, but you still made that decision. Now, if you are not aware about what you are doing, when you are doing it, it is impossible to change. I cannot stress that enough. If you are not aware of what you are doing, at the time you are doing it, you cannot choose to do something else. You become a victim of your own patterns, without any freedom to choose. In a very real sense, you are a prisoner to your own habitual reaction patterns. This sounds really harsh, and it is, and it is also true that this is how most people live their life. Me included. But by practising mindfulness it is possible to create and increase the gap between input and response and in this gap a choice becomes possible. You can choose to act in a way that better serves life, yours and others. I’m sure you have all had the experience of “waking up” to what you are doing. Suddenly seeing clearly that “this is not what I want”, and then stopping. This is a moment of mindfulness! The gap where the wisest parts of yourself can run the show.