Mindfulness Is Supposed to Adapt to You, Not the Other Way Around

I realized I was doing mindfulness the wrong way.

Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash

When you think of a mindfulness master, what do you see? I see someone who’s quiet, calm, still, and composed.

That’s all great, but I had an issue with this. The way I envisioned mindfulness wasn’t compatible with my nature, and this put me at odds with myself for a long time.

I thought I had to be a certain way in order to be mindful. Honestly, I’m only recently breaking that idea down and letting it go.

The mockingbird in me

I subconsciously tried to copy the people that I learned mindfulness from, which was primarily Thich Nhat Hanh and Eckhart Tolle. They are both brilliant and have changed my life in amazing ways. So I absorbed the teachings, but I accidentally adopted their demeanor too.

I did my best to become soft spoken, slow moving, quiet and contemplative, just like them. I thought if I did that, then I could consider myself a true practitioner of mindfulness.

But I was wrong.

I mean, I am those things sometimes, but most of the time I’m not.

It’s heartbreaking for me to say this, but I’ve been denying who I am in order to…