Mindfulness: Want it? Go jump in a lake.

On some level, everybody knows or can take an educated guess at what the definition of mindfulness is. Indeed a friend of mine was constantly reminded of said definition at many sessions with his therapist. The therapist would have explained how mindfulness is, (per Oxford dictionary) acceptance of one’s thoughts and feelings along with concentration on the present moment. Problem is nobody cares about the definition of mindfulness — the real question is how does one achieve it?

There are a lot of esoteric answers to this, but on a scientific level the answer boils down to sympathetic vs parasympathetic nervous systems within the body, and prefrontal cortex vs basal ganglia/reptilian brain.

The human condition is somewhat of an amalgamation of primitive, instinctual or autonomic processes and higher level cognition. Quite simply, as Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman put forward, we have two brains capable of decision making, and which are ready to jump in for the other in a fraction of a second.

Acting in an impulsive, uncontrolled manner is a byproduct of our reptilian mind. The yearning to consume calories as though the store will never open again or putting off an assignment until the task will somehow solve itself. There is a better method to solving these problems, and it requires engaging the prefrontal cortex more often. The way to do that…