A mindfulness metaphor - understanding mindfulness and attention exercise

by matt bridgman

​How are your mind and a puppy alike? 

​In my post on improving memory, starting with attention, I linked to articles dealing with improving attention and dealing with mindfulness. The brain was likened to muscles needing exercise. I would like to talk in more detail about the use of mindfulness as a way of exercising attention.

First, in its most basic form, mindfulness meditation/mindfulness exercise involves only three steps: 
Step 1: picking something to pay attention to, 
Step 2: catching your mind when it wanders away, and
Step 3: shifting your attention back to what you picked. 

It is a rather simple skill (only three steps). It is a skill that we all already know how to do. But, it is a very tricky skill, because the mind likes to wander!

A mindfulness metaphor: mindfulness as walking a puppy on a leash. Imagine that your mind is like a puppy. If you try to take a puppy for a walk, on a leash, on a sidewalk, where does it go? Everywhere but the sidewalk, perhaps? Puppies like to explore. They like to chase anything that moves. They love to run in the grass, and smell anything and everything. They can be actually rather resistant to going where we want them to go: on the sidewalk. 

Has your mind ever acted like this puppy? Wandering, or sometimes (or maybe often?) running from one thing to another, going everywhere except where we want it to be.

A puppy can be trained to walk more consistently on the sidewalk, on the leash, with less resistance. To do this of course requires practice: repeatedly walking the dog on the leash, and every time it wanders from the sidewalk, we use the leash to gently pull it back to the sidewalk; it wanders away, we pull it back, it wanders, we pull. It is the repetition of this interaction, over, and over, and over, and over again, that eventually trains the canine. Repetition and consistency are very important. 

In the same way, we can train our minds to remain more consistently on one sidewalk (or rather one thought, object, or person): a sidewalk of our choosing, rather than our mind wandering (or racing) to wherever it pleases. Mindfulness meditation is the way to train our minds in this way. It strengthens our ability to be purposeful with our attention.

Notice that I wrote "more consistently" and "with less resistance." It is unrealistic to expect our minds to ever stay on a sidewalk completely without wandering at all. Our minds are made to wander to some degree. And the wandering of a mind has its benefits. We don't ever want to completely stop our minds from wandering, we just want to strengthen our ability to manage this wandering when needed. 

This, as I mentioned, is a very basic form of mindfulness. There are many additional and very important aspects to mindfulness. Please see the mindfulness resources on my Resources page for more comprehensive descriptions/explanations and mindfulness exercises.

One of these additional aspects that should be mentioned here is the non-judgmental attitude: it is very common for the mind to judge ourselves/itself when it wanders off the sidewalk ......"why can't I do this simple exercise" "I should be able to do this". When practicing mindfulness, we can at times become very discouraged with how often our mind wanders and how difficult it can be to shift our attention back to what we were supposed to be focusing on at that moment. Therefore, please remember: Be kind to yourself. Mindfulness is tricky, and takes practice. Lots of practice. And remember, the goal is not to stop your mind from wandering, but to slowly decrease the frequency of wandering (at times) and increase the ease at which we can shift our focus back to where we wanted it to be. Furthermore, our ability to do this can fluctuate from moment to moment, and day to day, depending on a variety of factors. So.....be kind to yourself, and practice a non-judgmental attitude as you take your mind for a walk.

So.....next time you have the chance....
Step 1: pick a sidewalk on which to walk your mind (pick something to pay attention to: your breathing, the sounds around you, etc.)
Step 2: when your mind wanders away (and it will!), just notice that (don't judge! just notice), and then
Step 3: shift your attention back to your sidewalk

My next post will look in more detail at Step 1: picking the sidewalk. What do you pick to pay attention to in order to practice mindfulness? Exercise intensity (some sidewalks are easier than others) will also be considered. ​

Happy walking!