Mindfulness and Awareness - Mindworks Meditation

All of the many kinds of meditation that have developed over the years can be placed under one of two umbrellas: mindfulness and awareness. What is mindfulness meditation? It’s essentially training in being present here and now by acknowledging the thoughts and emotions that arise in the mind without judging them, and by allowing them to pass. You might think that to be mindful means to concentrate really hard on something, but actually the practice of mindfulness meditation is more about noticing and relaxing: it’s about letting go. How do you actually do mindfulness meditation? Usually you would sit in a posture that helps you focus on a meditation object, such as your breath or physical sensations, then simply watch what’s going on for however long you want to meditate: watching, noticing, and letting go of thoughts that might distract you away from staying with the breath or physical sensations.

Awareness meditation is a bit more active. Once you’ve learned to steady the mind through mindfulness, you might use that stability to take a close and direct look at how the mind functions. There are specific instructions for both forms of meditation that can help take the guesswork out of your practice.

For a progressive series of courses to train you gradually through mindfulness and awareness practice, we recommend the Mindworks Journey.

Discovering Genuine Confidence through Meditation

2022-08-14T20:17:06-07:00By Bart Mendel|

Unconditional goodness and self-worth There’s a big difference between ordinary confidence and genuine confidence. You could say that ordinary confidence is based on some kind of reference point or relationship. Often, if you feel confident it’s because you’re comparing your abilities with those of someone else, or it might have to do with something [...]

How Meditation Works to Stop Bad Habits

2022-04-24T07:15:14-07:00By Mindworks Team|

Science points to how bad habits form, but mindfulness helps us break free Research shows almost half of what we do is habitual, and this makes sense. Habits save energy and resources. If we never developed habits, we’d be exhausted by breakfast. And yet we know from experience not all habits are beneficial. If you’re [...]

Which Type of Meditation is Best?

2022-11-29T20:30:33-08:00By Mindworks Team|

The Best Types of Meditation for Beginners — Mindfulness & Awareness Once people understand there’s more than one type of meditation their next question is usually, which type is best? Meditation isn’t ranked on a worst, better, best scale - each type is different and helps us work with the mind in varying ways. The [...]

Unleashing the Goodness of Mind

2022-04-30T19:42:25-07:00By Tsony Devroux|

Refine Your Mind's Qualities and Potential with Meditation Practice One beautiful thing about the mind is that it doesn’t have to be become anything else. You might think of it as a gold nugget that you’ve discovered. Let’s assume that you recognize it as gold even though it appears to be rather lackluster and ordinary. [...]

How to Live in the Present & Overcome Fear

2021-12-11T21:05:56-08:00By Tokpa Korlo|

Overcoming the Fear of Now: A Journey from Addiction to Meditation Regardless of where we come from or who we are, we all have our own path to live. I was born into a family of meditators. I had a wonderful upbringing and caring, loving parents and yet I still found the need to [...]

Learn by Doing Nothing: Emotions and Thoughts in Meditation

2022-04-30T19:40:42-07:00By Tsony Devroux|

How do you practice being present in every moment of your life? Through meditation we learn that we can relate to our emotions with a more natural attitude. Once we’ve developed a meditative foundation of being present in the moment, the next step is to recognize that our emotions are not forced upon us. We [...]

Benefits of Mindfulness & Awareness Meditation

2022-07-24T10:40:43-07:00By Bart Mendel|

The many benefits of meditation can be grouped into two categories. In the first, we find all of the improvements to our health and general well-being that mindfulness is known for, including stress reduction, improved focus and resilience. The benefits in the second category are more subtle. Thanks to awareness meditation, we gain insights into how the [...]

Self-Esteem and Meditation

2021-05-14T17:21:44-07:00By Tokpa Korlo|

Discovering Genuine Confidence and Self-Worth through Meditation Self-esteem or self-worth come from knowing, unwaveringly, that you are who you are and that you belong. There’s a contentment, a confidence, not in an arrogant sense but an honest one. When you are at ease with your place in the world, there’s no need to compare yourself [...]

5 Simple Ways to be Mindful in Your Everyday Life

2023-02-19T20:40:17-08:00By Pamela Gayle White|

Each and every day, there are many opportunities to be mindful In today’s distraction-filled world, mindful moments can feel like a luxury. How can we be more mindful in a society that encourages multi-tasking and snap decisions? Note that being mindful doesn’t necessarily require sitting motionless in a quiet place for a certain length of [...]

Meditation: Discovering the Gold Mine Within

2021-11-01T16:58:39-07:00By Trinlay Rinpoche|

All emotions are related to worries about the self. That’s ego: the fact that you are always concerned about your self. Take depression and fear, for example. These emotions arise due to a way of thinking or to a situation you’re dealing with. Is it possible for you to analyze the situation? What are the [...]

Being a genuine person: 5 things to consider

2022-08-26T19:48:02-07:00By Bart Mendel|

We all have the ability to be genuine: to be open, honest, present, available and kind. It may seem that being genuine requires a great effort, but in truth, being genuine and living an authentic life are very reachable goals, because we’re already there! It’s just that we’re so busy with everything else, we [...]

Disrupting Habitual Patterns Through Meditation

2023-05-22T17:22:23-07:00By Rachel Parrish|

Habitual Patterns Limit Our Options and Hold Us Hostage Due to the tendencies we create out of habit, our thoughts and emotions default to a habitual response. Without awareness, we dig ever-deeper grooves into our minds: habitual patterns of behavior that can be either positive or negative. Through awareness practice we can begin to see [...]

Unconditional Well-Being

2023-05-25T11:14:14-07:00By Khaydroup Podvoll|

Our best qualities are revealed through meditation practice When we meditate, we’re training in being present to each moment without judging or allowing ourselves to be fascinated or repelled by what arises. We’re able to meet each moment, each challenge that appears, with equanimity because we can access the essence of each moment as [...]

Working with Emotions in Meditation

2022-07-16T19:21:53-07:00By Bart Mendel|

When we meditate, we need to understand how to work with thoughts and emotions. Emotions are part of life, but what are they? According to one definition of emotions, they are contents of the mind, like thoughts. They are not two separate things; both are produced by mental activity. You could think of thoughts [...]

How to Clear Our Minds and Create Space in Meditation

2022-07-24T10:45:09-07:00By Chogyal Rinpoche|

Disrupting Copy and Paste Mentality It is quite interesting that as human beings, our mental behavior often adopts a sort of copy and paste approach. If we’re not aware of our thought patterns, who we are and what we are may be defined by the way we repeat automatic behaviors learned since birth. In [...]

Mindfulness and Awareness Meditation Brings Resilience

2023-05-22T17:31:28-07:00By Khaydroup Podvoll|

In meditation practice, we discover that our mind is fundamentally resilient and able to work with challenging situations. In order to meet these challenges, we have to go beyond our distractions and habitual patterns and see what is really happening in our minds. We do this by practicing the two main aspects of meditation: [...]

Confidence in Meditation: Fundamental Fearlessness

2022-09-14T20:37:13-07:00By Tokpa Korlo|

Fearlessness: the spaciousness of meditation flows into everyday life As we sit, we become aware of the space that reveals itself through meditation. And we realize that along with the space comes enormous power: the power of looking at things in a way we had never tried before. Awareness of vastness and space gives us [...]

Anger Management and Meditation

2022-06-25T15:41:07-07:00By Stephen Dansiger|

Mindfulness can teach us that anger doesn’t have to be a problem. Anger’s not the problem, greed is not the problem, delusion is not the problem. The problem is how we relate to these difficulties. Here we’ll look at anger in particular since it’s the most unwieldy of them all. You don’t see many books [...]

What is Self Reflection Meditation?

2021-06-04T20:29:05-07:00By Mindworks Team|

“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” These pithy words were spoken by the French philosopher Blaise Pascal in the 17th century. We often become so swept up by our dreams, ambitions and regrets that we lose the ability for quiet reflection. And while there are times [...]

What Does Self Awareness Mean?

2021-05-14T11:34:47-07:00By Mindworks Team|

“Awareness” is a buzz word in meditation talks and mindfulness conversations. But what, actually is awareness? Is it being mentally alert? Discerning? Well-informed? Is there a difference between awareness and consciousness? Being self-conscious and self-aware aren’t the same thing, are they? So what does awareness mean, and what is self-awareness? Most dictionaries define awareness as [...]

The 5 Essential Points of Meditation

2023-05-22T17:37:58-07:00By Mindworks Team|

Ever wonder how Buddhist monks and nuns achieve that seemingly unflappable peace of mind? The truth is, they had to start from scratch - just like everybody else. As you work your way from distracted beginner to seasoned meditator, you’ll go through different stages too, even though you’ll need to leave the linear notion of [...]

5 Ways to Improve Mindfulness

2023-01-29T20:02:33-08:00By Mindworks Team|

Awareness and appreciation of the present moment give life its fullness. Training in mindfulness fosters focus, clarity, and gratitude for the goodness of now. But distraction is such a strong habit that even while we are walking, eating and traveling, our minds are usually somewhere else. How can we train in mindfulness and learn to [...]

The Meaning of Mindfulness and Awareness

2023-05-22T17:19:10-07:00By Mindworks Team|

Mindfulness and awareness are the foundations of meditation. But what’s the difference? If the term “mindfulness” is now part of the zeitgeist, “awareness” is somewhat harder to pin down. In the context of meditation, both mindfulness and awareness are essential. In fact, the journey to understanding the mind and how to work with it [...]

What Does “Mindful” Mean?

2022-04-24T07:08:21-07:00By Mindworks Team|

Mindful is just what you’d think, kind of Be mindful of the time, mindful of your language, mindful of how much those groceries cost, mindful of where you put your feet—being mindful was part of our everyday language long before mindfulness became a thing. So what does it mean to “be mindful,” exactly? In our [...]