You’ve been told to be more “mindful” and to practice “mindfulness.”  

After all, scientific studies have shown us the mental health benefits of mindfulness:  reducing stress, depression, and anxiety symptoms while enhancing mood, well-being, cognitive function, and emotional regulation.

And the physical health benefits:  reducing blood pressure and chronic pain while enhancing sleep quality, gut health, and immune function.  

The instruction to practice implies it is something that doesn’t come naturally.  

(And, let’s face it, mindfulness comes to us humans about as naturally as the color orange comes to Doritos.) 

People might have occasional moments of present-awareness, but it’s usually short lived.

You might even go a step further and have a “meditation practice,” likely done in a secluded, quiet place, where you incorporate mindfulness – non-judgmental awareness and acceptance of whatever arises – into your meditation.  

Nothing wrong with that.  

You might have noticed, however, when you return to the “real world,” the default, well-practiced habits of distraction and distortion take over…like weeds in a garden.  

Why?  Because mindfulness is not yet a habit.  

Building habits takes a lot of repetition and reinforcement, which, after all, takes time.  So, naturally, someone might suggest that you just need to add more time to your current practice. 

But time, itself, will not result in the mindfulness habit.  

I’m reminded of the wisdom of Coach Porter who, thirty years ago, (rather forcefully) told me, “Joe, practice does NOT make perfect!  Practice makes permanent!”  

In other words, time is a variable that compounds, for better or worse, whatever you’re doing within that time.  

So, what if the answer is NOT to add more time to your existing mindfulness meditation practice, but to change the practice?

The Mindfulness Habit is the next habit in the Habits of Happiness series.  

Why mindfulness?  What does mindfulness have to do with happiness?   

If distractions and distortions are linked to distress and unhappiness (and they are), and if mindfulness can dissolve distractions and distortions (which it can), then mindfulness is essential for happiness.  

See, I believe true mindfulness brings awareness of the proximate cause of all thoughts and physical sensations.

(I know…there’s a lot to unpack in that sentence…and that’s what we’ll be doing in the upcoming FREE Mindfulness Habit Workshop.)  

I’m not simply talking about an awareness OF the thoughts and physical sensations, themselves.  

I’m talking about an awareness of HOW those things occur.   

What is their source?

Spoiler alert:  It’s not what YOU think…

Take this quiz if you’re curious to know WHO has been doing most of the thinking for YOU!