The more that a behavior is repeated, the more we learn to see the world a certain way—through a lens that is biased, based on rewards and punishments from previous actions.We form a habit of sorts, the lens being a habitual way of seeing. A simple example: if we eat cake and it tastes good, in the future, when given a choice between it and some other sweet that we don’t like as much, we will likely lean toward the cake.
Over time, our viewpoints become so habitual that we don’t question our reflexive, knee-jerk reactions.Analogously, we spend much of our lives mindlessly and reflexively reacting in accordance with our subjective biases, losing sight of changes in ourselves and our environment that no longer support our habitual actions—which can lead to trouble.
how mindfulness—paying attention to our moment-to-moment experience in a particular way—helps us work with our habits.
f we used our feeling of stress or dis-ease as our compass? The goal is not to find more stress (we all have plenty of that!), but to use our existing stress as a navigation tool. What does stress actually feel like, and how does it differ from other emotions such as excitement? If we can clearly orient ourselves to the needle of “south” (toward stress) and “north” (away from stress), we can use that alignment as a compass to help guide our lives.
Map=mindfulness=The awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.
Mindfulness helps us see through our learned associations, subjective biases, and the resultant reactivi