Being present in the moment - is one aspect of mindfulness.
That this can facilitate less "holding on" to thoughts and emotional states is a nice side effect.
For me and the communities I am a part of - I've noticed something that feels "deeper", here, which is that I've learned to not try to avoid things that feel negative - really, to befriend and even welcome every and all emotional state with curiosity and compassion. In this way, I've felt much less reactive, and much more capable of introspecting on what is going on within myself. This, combined with various other practices, support, and therapy, has been uncovering some really big changes in my life, both internally and externally.
This reminds me of a concept that is frequently discussed by a teacher and author I recommend - Tara Brach (she has a great podcast series).
She talks about the twin wings of compassion and awareness that are fundamental to many schools of Buddhism. Awareness === mindfulness, mastery of the mind and thought. Without compassion, i.e., opening of the heart - mindfulness doesn't have the same kind of potency for cultivation. It's hard to fly with only one wing. There's been a very large push for mindfulness but less so for unconditional love. Probably because we are a very cognitively-focused society, with many, many powerful disembodying influences.
To stay connected to ones heart is a somatic experience. In my own experience and, again, hearing from many others, this is much more challenging than practicing different kinds of mindfulness meditation on a regular basis. Certainly not even remotely close to impossible - it's a natural state of our physiology that's often been deconditioned. There are many tools, techniques, and systems to help us re-access this state.
With compassion, unconditional love can be brought to all aspects of yourself, all parts of experience that our egoic states might want to categorize as "bad" (or "good"). And, if we can really give this to ourselves, then we bring it out into the world, to share with as many beings as possible.
That this can facilitate less "holding on" to thoughts and emotional states is a nice side effect.
For me and the communities I am a part of - I've noticed something that feels "deeper", here, which is that I've learned to not try to avoid things that feel negative - really, to befriend and even welcome every and all emotional state with curiosity and compassion. In this way, I've felt much less reactive, and much more capable of introspecting on what is going on within myself. This, combined with various other practices, support, and therapy, has been uncovering some really big changes in my life, both internally and externally.
This reminds me of a concept that is frequently discussed by a teacher and author I recommend - Tara Brach (she has a great podcast series).
She talks about the twin wings of compassion and awareness that are fundamental to many schools of Buddhism. Awareness === mindfulness, mastery of the mind and thought. Without compassion, i.e., opening of the heart - mindfulness doesn't have the same kind of potency for cultivation. It's hard to fly with only one wing. There's been a very large push for mindfulness but less so for unconditional love. Probably because we are a very cognitively-focused society, with many, many powerful disembodying influences.
To stay connected to ones heart is a somatic experience. In my own experience and, again, hearing from many others, this is much more challenging than practicing different kinds of mindfulness meditation on a regular basis. Certainly not even remotely close to impossible - it's a natural state of our physiology that's often been deconditioned. There are many tools, techniques, and systems to help us re-access this state.
With compassion, unconditional love can be brought to all aspects of yourself, all parts of experience that our egoic states might want to categorize as "bad" (or "good"). And, if we can really give this to ourselves, then we bring it out into the world, to share with as many beings as possible.