Is it difficult for you to stay focused on the task at hand? How many times have you wanted to dedicate yourself to completing an important job or project that you had pending? How often do you get lost in your thoughts for a long time without realizing it? Can you free yourself from your worries? Do you recreate past memories? Do you constantly check the messages that come into your cell phone? Do you feel like the days are going by too fast and you don’t have enough time to enjoy them?

Age of distraction

We do not live in the information age but in the age of distraction. Distractions can take more than two hours of our day, and it takes between 15 and 20 minutes to refocus after we lose focus. Distractions also reduce our ability to understand, memorize and make adequate decisions.

In a logical world, technology would make us work less because it helps us identify and solve problems faster. But its dark side is becoming more and more present. It attacks personal life, it is hard to turn off and there is too much information available. It is hard for us to process it all, and too many distractions invade us. We are increasingly hooked on and even abducted by the devices that are supposed to make our lives easier. We suffer more anxiety and exhaustion than at any previous time.

I started meditating as part of my spiritual path more than 20 years ago. The truth is that in the beginning, I practiced only occasionally. As is often the case for us humans, I never found the ideal time to carry out my plan. I thought I had many obligations that first needed to be fulfilled, and I rarely found enough time.

It was only years later that I realized its true importance, and the urgent need to integrate meditation into my daily life. When I first travelled to India, I decided to train with a teacher to fit this new habit into my life, take it seriously and continue regularly back home. It has been 17 years since then. The lamas with whom I began to study in Dharamsala emphasized how important it is to practice. I can confirm that it changes your life. However, like so many things in life, it is of little use to be told unless you take action. Until you experience it for yourself, you cannot appreciate the impact it can have.

It is essential to note that Mindfulness is not the easiest skill to learn, possibly because we have spent our entire lives developing mental habits contrary to the ideal of mindfulness, and we must unlearn them. Strategy and practice are needed to get rid of this.

6 ways to tell you’re making progress with mindfulness practice

If you’re wondering whether you’re making progress with your Mindfulness Practice, here are six signposts that will help you tell whether you’re making progress.

Clarity

A large part of the distractions that beset us are not external, but internal. Most of our stress comes from our own thoughts. Our mind is very hard to control. It enjoys getting lost in the twists and turns of the past, dreams of the future and worries about possible problems. As our mental turmoil calms down, clarity is created and we face daily life with greater serenity, equanimity and lucidity.

Patience

Mindfulness is a simple technique that becomes more powerful as we become aware of the repetitive thought patterns in our minds. If we practice patiently when things are going well, when stressful or confusing situations happen, we already have the ability to see our intense emotions as just mental states and not as reflections of reality. That is what allows us to gradually free ourselves from the influence of emotions.

Honesty

Although mindfulness cannot prevent us from experiencing pain and sorrow, it does allow us to face life honestly and transparently, without needing a shield. We want to approach life in such a way that we can overcome pain without turning it into suffering. We will avoid being stuck in certain situations, and we will be able to let go of grievances.

Wisdom

Wisdom has nothing to do with filling the mind with information. It is about being content with the world as it is, without trying to adjust it to our desires. We begin to experience a certain inner peace when we accept that we cannot always get things to be the way we want, and that is OK. We also stop judging every situation as being good or bad, as we no longer confuse reality with our interpretation. We become aware of our mental filters and how they often affect our experience.

Compassion

When we go beyond a result-oriented mindset, the practice of meditation begins to feel more beneficial. We improve our flexibility, tolerance and compassion. We are more likely to forgive and forget. We begin to feel greater love for others because we make a greater effort to understand them—because we also understand ourselves better. When we learn to look inside and see our fantasies and weaknesses and human errors, we become more humble and compassionate.

Brightness

We savour every moment. Each day, each action, each circumstance has a relevance of its own, and moments do not remain blurred in unconsciousness. Nothing is taken for granted or belittled. Common and boring experiences no longer exist, as everything begins to take on a certain brightness. We avoid categorizing experiences and pigeonholing them. And we abandon continuous descriptions and judgments of people and events. Each moment has something to contribute, something to say. And we respect it enough to stop and listen. Without exactly knowing how, we begin to appreciate the magic of existence.

Rising above

Practicing mindfulness regularly does not stop the ups and downs of life. However, the tension, fear and concern do subside. The agitation subsides, and the wild passions calm. All the pieces eventually find their place without having to struggle or fight against the unpleasant aspects of life. Life becomes more like a glider gliding through the winds and above storms than a fierce battle.

As the Dalai Lama says: “I find hope in the darkest days, and I focus on the bright because I do not judge the universe.”

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