Mindfulness: A painkiller or immunity booster

Mindfulness is the buzzword today and yet we see the people around in society behaving so mindlessly. We all know the benefits of mindfulness, yet it is so difficult to practice. We see if a product has quality in the market, people immediately buy the same. Why people are not buying mindfulness to make their lives full of peace?

We will have to examine the concept of mindfulness deeply to understand the reasons. Mindfulness means being completely attentive in the present moment so that the mind is full of awareness of the present moment. If the mind is full of the thoughts about past or future, that will not be possible. The mind is full of the thoughts about past or future because we are fixated on something. If we are fixated on financial security, past instances of poverty will frighten us and the mind will be fixated on the thoughts to get financial security in the future. If we are fixated on a relation, our mind will dwell on past memories with that friend or relative or the imaginations about the future with that friend. If we are fixated on a position, the mind will always keep calculating the ways and means to stay in that position. These fixations are cravings for one or the other thing.

The other type of fixations are aversions to one or the other thing. For example, we have had a fight with our boss or a friend and we want to avoid that person. The mind will be fixated on the ways and means to avoid that person. If we want to avoid transfer in the job. the mind will be fixated on the fear of transfer or the ways and means to avoid a transfer.

There are not one or two such fixations, in fact, as we grow old, we keep developing more and more fixations. These fixations are like the gravity of the earth that does not allow us to fly freely. They pull us back to the earth. The gravity of these fixations is at each place on this earth. Whether we are sleeping or awake, working or resting, at home or outside, these fixations are always with us.

Generally, I have seen that people are not interested in mindfulness so long as the circumstances are supporting them and they are getting what they like and crave. Students are getting success in the exam, adults are getting growth in their career, monetary rewards, and promotions, family is healthy, kids are doing well and relations are well in shape. With very few exceptions, people get interested in mindfulness when they have difficulties in life. When they are struggling with finances or disputes in the family or bad relationships or health issues in the family or problems in careers or issues with kids.

When people feel pained due to the fact that the circumstances are not favoring them to get the desired objects or they are not able to get rid of their aversions, they mistake mindfulness to be a painkiller. They feel by mindfulness is like a balm that will relieve them immediately. The sad part is that the traders of mindfulness who are commercially running the shops to sell "mindfulness" products try to sell their fake products to these weak minds and such people get into the trap.

Mindfulness is not a painkiller rather it is about building immunity. It is a way of living. It is not a one-sided affair that you will get rid of only undesired fixations. It is not a medicine treating one part of the body and harming the other part. It is a holistic treatment of the body. It is about working on all the fixations whether we want to get rid of the same or not; whether we are aware of them or not. One can not work on gravity selectively in a part of the Earth. Even if we build some zero gravity chamber on Earth, we can not stay in that chamber all our lives. We have to come out to face life as it is.

Mindfulness is therefore to be aware of all our fixations, whether we like or dislike them; whether we want to get rid of them or not. It is about seeing the limitations these fixations have imposed on our lives. To get rid of them. To fly freely in outer space to explore not only the Earth but the entire universe. To come back to the Earth with an understanding and awareness of zero gravity and the possibilities of exploration. To make friends and fellow human beings aware of the possibility of exploration. To live a life free of all the fixations like Krishna.

We have only one choice to make: to live mindfully enjoying freedom. If we do not make this choice, the default option is living limited life with fixations. Gravity is the normal course if we do not make efforts to go to outer space. Diseases will infect the body naturally if we do not work on immunity.