Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of Minfulness-based Stress Reduction, once proposed 7 "attitudes of mindfulness" to help people better understand what is the mindful state of life.
1. Non-Judging
"Confronted with all kinds of experiences and events in life, just observe what they are, don't give judgments of good or bad, right or wrong.
Mindfulness encourages people to go beyond black and white judgments, so as to see things that are more real and more complex.
2. Patience
"Aware and accept that many things can only unfold at their own pace."
Our lives are made up of countless present moments. When we are impatient, we are losing the opportunity to feel the moments, that is losing our lives as well. So, even if you feel nervous or scared at this moment, don't worry, don't lose patience with yourself.
Mindfulness encourages us to be patient. Because many things in life need time to complete, just like dough waiting to ferment and butterfly larva waiting to metamorphose. This requires us to consciously remind ourselves when we are nervous and anxious and give ourselves more time and space to allow things to happen.
3. Beginner's mind
"Stay curious about the unknow, look at the inner self and outer world openly with full of freshness."
Mindfulness advocates the life philosophy of maintaining a "novice mentality". Do not assume that you knew already, let go of the prejudices and established cognitions formed in the past. Look at the experience and information in life with a pure curiosity about the unknown.
Empty yourself from time to time, treat all experiences with curiosity as it is the "first time" with "no assumptions" , so that we can give ourselves the opportunity to experience more.
4. Trust
"Believe in your own feelings and intuition, rather than always searing the answer outside. "
In particular, you need to pay attention to and believe in the clues your body brings to you. What is your body feeling? What is it telling you? Trusting these feelings is often the first step towards the truth about yourself.
Mindfulness encourages us to sense our intuition and believe it. Believe it exist for a reason and be willing to explore where it comes from.
Even if these intuitions are sometimes not completely accurate, still we can gain more self-understanding in the process and deepen our connection with ourselves.
5. Non-striving
"Let go of those obsessive pursuits, listen to yourself deeply instead of acting immediately."
Many people strive hard to become what they should be. But while pursuing vigorously, we are also telling ourselves, "We are not good enough at this moment", and therefore feel anxious.
In order to escape the state of anxiety, we may manipulate ourselves or others, or force certain things to happen in order to achieve specific results. Eventually, we may feel tired-out physically and mentally, and become extremely exhausted.
6. Acceptance
"See and acknowledge the way things are at this moment."
Many people try to force things into certain states (which they obviously are not) such as: expecting parents to love us the way we want, or expecting lovers to become our ideals, and so on.
Only by accepting, we can see the true appearances of people and things and get more adequate and correct information.
Mindfulness encourages us to see and acknowledge the appearances of things as they are, instead of spending more effort to resist its existence. When you can clearly see the development of things, you can respond more wisely.
7. Letting go
"Keep an open mind about the changes that may occur in the future, whether it is what we want or don't want."
Many times, we are accustomed to "holding on": always grasp the thoughts that make us happy firmly and resist the thoughts that make us unpleasant.
In this process of "holding on"-"resisting", we gradually formed a set of fixed concepts about ourselves, others and life. For example, "I must take first place", "Life is over if I lose my job", and so on.