Mindful vs Mindless
With “mindfulness” becoming such a popular word it’s interesting to think about what it means.
Mindful - Aware of the mind; conscious or aware of something.
I think there are huge benefits of being able to witness your mind and having power of mind. That is, the ability to witness and manipulate your thoughts, emotions, perspective, etc. But is it useful to do this all the time?
Mindlessness gets a bad wrap, like doing things without care or attention. “acting without justification and with no concern for the consequences”.
But I think constantly witnessing yourself is exhausting and unnecessary. “Being in the moment” seems to be so desired yet witnessing the moment doesn’t really feel like being IN it…
So maybe what we’re looking for, like all things is a balance. Acting/being with care and attention but without over analysis (which, is a common symptom/cause of depression and anxiety - over thinking and rumination). Can we have self-awareness but not self analysis and judgement?
And maybe it is useful to not think in binaries. Maybe it’s not an either or situation, maybe a bit of both is useful, at the same time, at different times, for different purposes?
Can we be mindlessly mindful? Can we be mindless in that we experience in the most direct way possible without interjecting thoughts and analysis between stimulus and experience yet at the same time have space to mediate responses when necessary, to break unhelpful automatic thoughts, to catch ourselves when necessary, to have perspective, i.e be mindful?