The paradox of Mindfulness

Imagine instead of rating your anxiety and flight mode out of ten, you visualised it.

Visualise a ten level building. When you are on levels 1 to 3 you are calm and relaxed. When you are on levels 4 to 6 you are more anxious and entering flight mode. You feel panicked. And when you are on levels 7 to 9 you are even more stressed and panicked and anxious.

Now the paradox of Mindfulness is that you cannot enter it on levels 4 and up. You have to get yourself down to levels 3 and lower to enter it. That is, you have to enter a state of calm and relaxation before Mindfulness can be observed.

Don't you just hate it when you already feel stressed and anxious and someone says to you 'Just calm down'. It doesn't work does it? It just infuriates you even more.

That is the equivalent of being on the 7th level of the building and someone is down on level 2 shouting up at you 'Just enter Mindfulness'. It's impossible to do from level 7.

Imagine a zebra being chased by a hungry lion. And yelling out the zebra 'Just relax mate, enter mindfulness'. That clearly isn't going to happen.

The point is simple: to enter Mindfulness you have to already be at a 1,2 or 3 out of 10. You need it most when you're at a 4,6 or 8 - but that's exactly when it's impossible to enter. You must be relaxed before you access it, not the other way around.

So if you find yourself on levels 4 or above, find techniques to get yourself down to level 3 and below. And then from there, try entering Mindfulness. It's not the other way around. (My techniques are explained in another blog).

And that, my friends, is the paradox.

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