How Mindfulness Needs Awareness

Recently, while I was in a doctor’s office for a routine exam, a young man walked in. 

He was tall, making his age hard to detect as he went to the counter and asked the two women checking in patients if they had a phone charger he could use. They hesitated, but then asked for the type of phone and started opening drawers to look.  

I sat in the waiting room with several other people and listened while this happened. When the young man turned around, I looked at his face and noticed fear, sadness, and I also realized how much younger he was than I previously thought. Early high school, maybe.

This is when I asked him if he was in trouble and if he needed any help. He said he didn’t know where he was.  

Mindfulness is a buzzword now and I love it. It is so important. There’s another word that has been resonating with me and also my clients lately, and that is awareness.

Awareness is a sibling to mindfulness. 
How often do you really notice what is going on inside you (self-awareness) 
but also around you?

I make it a practice to be aware and this helps me be mindful.  One way I do this is by noticing detail.

• Detail when I am driving my car – What does the sky look like? The trees? The people who are out? I concentrate on noticing small details on my dashboard.
• Detail when I eat slowly – How does my food taste? How would I describe it to a friend? How much am I enjoying it?
• Detail when I am talking with people at work –  How do they seem today? Are they fidgeting? What else do I notice?
• Detail when doing tasks I normally dislike –  Folding warm laundry and noticing how it feels.

Many times, people mention being stuck in their head or that their thoughts are racing.

Taking a few deep breaths and making the decision to take a moment to be aware of detail helps me to be mindful.  When I am mindful, it also gives me the opportunity to be more grateful.

I can move about my day with greater purpose 
because it crystallizes what’s most important – 
this very moment I have right now and the connection to myself and to others.

And what about the young man? He was grateful that I talked with him until he was able to call a parent to pick him up after his friends had been goofing around and told him to get out of the car.

It would have been easy to mind my own business, keeping my head down and waiting for my turn to go to an exam room. But, I’m grateful for my awareness in that moment which helped me tune in to his needs and reach out to help. I believe I brought him comfort, and there was even an opportunity to do a little life coaching. 

How do you practice awareness?