#192 Preconceptions get in the way

     It's natural to have ideas about what meditation and other mindfulness practices are about. However, Mindfulness practices are categorically different from our usual arena of competence: linear thinking, effortful pursuit and acquisition of goals. In other words, our ideas tend to be off the mark - a bit like a street-fighter's concepts about piano lessons.
     A common concept is that the harder and the longer you work, the greater the results and the faster you'll achieve them. Such strong emphasis on a particular goal or end result has negative effects on the process for achieving the goal, as well as on the doer. In Mindfulness practice, I am both doer AND result. The QUALITY or ATTITUDE that I embody during the practice is what matters, and is in fact the product.
     This quality is an inherent part of our human nature, but underdeveloped, unappreciated, and underutilized. Mindfulness practice is about intentionally training to recognize it, see how it effects our daily lives, and make it progressively more consistent.