Mindfulness

"Do not fear mistakes. There are none." Miles Davis

I often ask myself what mindfulness is, & how to make it more available in my life. For me, mindfulness is being more present with the here & now. Something so seemingly simple can be hard to achieve. Our lives tend to be very busy, requiring constant mental & physical activity. So why "slow" down to enjoy the present moment? Firstly, that is all there is. The past & the future are mental constructs we create to give continuity to our lives. Secondly, when we are mindful, we enhance our relaxation, increase our focus, & in general, we can see & feel things in our lives that we perhaps would have missed otherwise.

We can perhaps start to understand why the word mindfulness has become so popular, from metaphysics to the business world. It applies everywhere humans live & work. Every mental relaxation & spiritual technique there is attempts to bring about this mindfulness into our lives: meditation, yoga, T'ai Chi, mantras, sound & music healing, music therapy, etc.

I bring awareness & mindfulness in my own daily music/guitar practice. Instead of rushing through the warm up & technical exercises when I begin, I try to consciously slow my mind & fingers, & enjoy the physical sensation when each finger plucks or frets a string. There is a unique physical sensation & vibration on the fingers & hands, followed by the guitar's resonance on each of my thighs & chest, as it rests on my body. I can feel my whole body resonate with my guitar, becoming part of a whole "instrument," all of it creating the music. As we say in T'ai Chi, eventually music is "doing us," not us doing music anymore...