You are not your thoughts. If you are reading this you have probably become aware of a thought or emotion that concerns you. But how were you able to step back from that thought or emotion (or both) to investigate resolving it? That’s mindfulness. Studies have shown that change starts to happen the moment a person realizes they have an issue and starts to investigate a solution. Why? Because they have accessed a part of the brain that is not troubled, anxious or confused. Just aware. We have three basic ways of being aware.
Thinking, feeling and noticing. Most of us are well aware of our thinking function all too well. This is the part that judges, analyzes and expects. In short, we have awareness of our problem solver. Our feeling function experiences. It experiences our emotions, senses, bodily sensations, gut feelings and intuition. The noticing part is aware of all these functions but doesn’t think or feel. It’s simply aware. It doesn’t judge, comment or explain, it just is. This part is often overlooked and underdeveloped because the other two are better at getting our attention since they are crucial in our survival. Because we can often be swept up in our thoughts and emotions, it’s important to build a “scaffolding” where we can move to so that we may change how we think and have a better relationship with our feelings.
Mindfulness is the practice of strengthening this awareness. There are many different approaches (the most commonly known is meditation) but all help to create a calm place to observe. Mindfulness can be practiced any time, any place – not just in a quiet room. Here at Chicago Personal Growth Institute we believe Mindfulness is an essential tool in facilitating growth and awareness.
Awareness happens naturally through the therapeutic process but by practicing mindfulness, growth will happen much faster. We teach you methods that work personally for you and your lifestyle. We also offer weekly group sessions so that you can continue to improve your practice.
