Chris Manning: The Other Side Of Mindfulness
I stumbled across mindfulness pretty much by accident. In a typically low moment when I felt like there were no options left for me, I did the only thing I hadn’t done and turned my attention inwards.
After a while I noticed things beginning to change – both in myself and in the world around me. It was a revelation, and I eventually learned that I had discovered – among other things – mindfulness.
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change,” said Dr Wayne Dyer, and I had learned that by becoming aware of, and changing, my perspective I could not only affect the way I saw the world, but I could affect the world itself. If you smile at people, quite often, they smile back.
Mindfulness is simple, but also powerful. I can be used to manage pain and stress. It can be used as a treatment for PTSD. And it is often seen as a near-panacea for a whole range of spiritual, mental and physical ills. It also offers the allure of other ways of being, and the exploration of other realms of imagination and existence.
It’s not all sunlight and stardust, though. It can also become an escape from the responsibility of dealing with our emotions. Taken to extremes, we can lose ourselves in it, absolve ourselves from any culpability in this physical realm, and even step outside the moral contract we have with this world and the people we share it with.
But it can also be a powerful tool for helping us gain ownership of our lives when, all too often, we can feel like life is dragging us along behind it, unwillingly and with no control or influence.
I spoke to Mindfulness Man, Chris Manning, about this and other mindfulness-related topics. Chris is a meditation and mindfulness expert. He is the admin of a rapidly growing Facebook group called Mindfulness In Daily Life, and he has a variety of guided meditations on Insight Timer.
I hope you enjoy our conversation.
Useful links:
Instagram: www.instagram.com/mindfulnessman
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MINDFULNESSINDAILYLIFE/
Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/mindfulnessman/