I put on my earbuds and tapped "play" on my screen. Media such as Instagram reels, YouTube shorts, Spotify playlists, Podcast episodes, and my Audible book collection, began to flow into my mind. For years, this had been how I utilized my time as I entered what I called the "on my way" mode - on my way to my next class, a meeting, a dinner date, a social gathering, etc. To me, being on my way was an opportunity. It's a chance to savor my favorite music, absorb new knowledge, and interact on social media. After all, if I didn't engage in some sort of activity, it would indeed feel like a waste of time. Interestingly, after starting graduate school and forming a more busy schedule, I noticed a shift in my state when I routinely entered my "on my way" mode. Being "on my way" was supposed to serve as a light activity that warms up or relaxes my brain. However, I didn't seem to be feeling that reviving benefit anymore. Instead, I constantly felt my entire mind was clogged and dulled. I felt suffocated and energy-depleted.
Then, one day, I accidentally left my earbuds at home. At first, I was annoyed and frustrated by this disruption of my "on my way" ritual. After a few minutes, I surrendered my denial and simply decided to attend to my surroundings as I walked through the central campus. What happened next was a phenomenal experience. As I directed my attention to navigate my surroundings, my senses picked up details I had shut away with my typical "on my way" activity. I heard the bus hissing as it braked across the street. I heard a dense layer of chirping sounds emitting from a short tree ("Wow, this must be an entire apartment of birds", I thought"). I felt the air brushing through my cheeks. The most enchanting scene was seeing a family walking their young husky; the husky spotted a squirrel attentively eating a pinenut; like a curious toddler, the husky carefully approached the squirrel in slow steps, eyes glowing and body curling up into a hunting posture. A smile took over my face. I was immersed in a refreshing feeling I hadn't felt for a while. It was as if my entire body was gently massaged and unclogged. I felt recharged and alive. I felt ready to continue my day.
What I experienced was related to a concept that originated from Buddism called mindfulness - being present or intentionally aware of what's happening in your environment, your mind, and your body without judgment. To be honest, mindfulness used to sound like a cliché to me. To be aware? How does paying attention to the sound of birds and the feeling of the wind considered a form of psychological self-care? Sounds like some kind of spiritual scam to me. Despite that initial doubt, after doing some research and practice, I began to grasp why mindfulness is a powerful tool.
The Power of Mindfulness
We often hear that performing mindful meditation or simply being practicing being mindful while taking a walk in nature can be "reviving". What does that "reviving" or "recharging" benefit translate to within the context of mindfulness? I think the idea of "feeling recharged" through mindfulness can be understood with the Attention Restoration Theory. This theory proposes that our attention and cognitive functions are depleted as we engage in tasks that require our direct focus - watching a movie, reading a paper, having a conversation, listening to a speech, etc.; as we are exposed to environments like nature, our senses take a break from the noisy, aggressive manufactured stimuli, thus allowing our depleted attention to be "restored". Going back to my "on my way" example, while scrolling on my phone might seem like a leisure activity, it still required an extensive expenditure of my brain power: processing and evaluating what the Audible speaker narrated, undergoing emotional shifts as I was moved by the powerful lyrics and rhythms of my favorite playlist, and thinking about how to respond to the replies on my Instagram stories. In other words, If we think of using my attention and cognitive ability as weight-training, we can say that my brain was constantly "working out" without adequate rest days for recovery. As a result, despite my seemingly "relaxing" activities during my "on my way" moments, I was chronically deprived of energy. The clogging and suffocating feeling that I experienced, thus, was like a chronic inflammation of the mind. When I forgot my earbuds at home and became attuned to my surroundings, it was like allowing the tensed-up "brain muscle" to finally relax; furthermore, the non-aggressive stimuli (e.g., the feeling of the breeze and the chirping of the birds) in my surroundings evoked what psychologists called soft fascinations, which are gentle forms of guiding and capturing attention without extensive mental effort. This mechanism functioned like a yoga session or a post-workout stretch of the mind, which made me feel like we've been relaxed and recharged.
Image Source: "Marvel's What If" © Marvel Studios, 2021.
In Marvel Comics, there's an intriguing character called the Watcher, a being that exists outside the planes of space and time. The Watcher observes everything that's happening across the universes and vows to never intervene. The nature of this character is similar to another state associated with mindfulness called decentering. Decentering refers to observing your thoughts and experiences from a distanced, neutral point of view. It is becoming separated from your experiences as if you are the Watcher, observing them unfold from the above. This disidentification with your thoughts, feelings, and emotions allows you to more clearly define your sense of self as a separate entity from your experiences; as they become separated objects, they can more freely enter and exit your awareness without becoming entangled and clogged in your psyche. Research showed that these mindfulness-related mechanisms are associated with a variety of health benefits, including increased psychological well-being, decreased levels of stress, rumination, and depressive symptoms, and even slowed brain aging. In fact, researchers from New York University and the University of Wisconsin Madison performed brain scans on Buddhist lamas as they entered a meditated state, and found distinctive brain activity that could have important implications for brain-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease.
Focused Attention & Open Monitoring
How, then, do we practice mindfulness? If there's one thing to remember about mindfulness, it's the intention of being free of judgment. A rule of thumb is to minimize the use of descriptive adjectives in your head as you observe your experiences. If you notice an unpleasant smell in the air, practice attending to the awareness, "There is something that smells" without dwelling on the judgmental chatter that follows, "That is disgusting!". If you encounter a baby raccoon while taking a walk, practice acknowledging its presence, "There is a baby raccoon" without becoming consumed by the reaction, "OMG, that is the cutest thing ever!" Having this principle at the back of your mind, you are ready to begin.
Two popular mindfulness techniques are focused attention and open monitoring. Focused attention involves concentration on one specific object (often your breath) while filtering out everything else. For example, if you choose your breath as your target of focus, you might attend to the overall rhythm of the airflow entering and exiting through your nose and throat and your abdomen expanding and contracting. If you find your mind wanders somewhere else or become distracted (e.g., thinking about an upcoming project or what to grab for dinner), gently pull your attention back to the object. Focused attention is similar to flying a kite. Through the rhythm of the wind (e.g., the concentration on your breathing), let the kite (your attention) fly steadily at a desired location. When the kite drifts too far, you intentionally and gently retract the string to guide it back to its originally focused location.
The second technique, open monitoring, involves becoming receptive to your surroundings, internal states, and their interactions. Going back to the kite analogy, you are now allowing the kite (your attention) to freely navigate the sky (your external and internal environment). If you are dining at a restaurant, you might notice the sounds of utensils hitting the plates and the smell of the trace of cologne left behind by someone who walks past, the heat emitted from the food on your plate, the savory taste that gradually expands in your mouth, and the increasing amount of saliva being generated on your tongue. Or perhaps when you are taking a walk in nature, you might notice the feeling of the breeze gliding on the surface of your skin, the smell of soil and grass, and the weight of your steps as they contact the earth. Let these experiences freely enter and pass through you without clinging to them. Imagine that your mind is an organ breathing in and out those stimuli and experiences: inhale, exhale, and don't hold your breath.
Conclusion
Why do we sometimes feel burnt out despite spending hours not engaging in productive work? Why do we sometimes feel the strong urge to not give a shit about anything? One reason is we are used to our senses and attention being stuffed by psychologically taxing stimuli. Even what we consider "taking a break" has become equivalent to plugging into portable devices and drowning in memes, advertisements, social media messages, political propaganda, and other noisy, chaotic information. Mindfulness detoxifies your chronically "inflamed" mind by gently neutralizing the emotional, subjective contents of your experiences by distancing you from them; it restores your attention and recharges your mind. Next time, when you are taking a short break from work or school, perhaps being on your way to something, or perhaps relaxing in your bed or bathtub, try spending 10 minutes, or even just 5 minutes away from the psychologically noisy environment (such as your phone); unplug from your devices; practice your mind's "post-workout stretch" by using focused attention and open monitoring. Recognize mindfulness as a truly effective power nap for your psyche. Become the Watcher of your universe.
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