Get happy, get mindful

2 mins to read

Want to concentrate more fully and amp up the joy you squeeze from each day? We speak to author of The Happiness Trap, Russ Harris, about the emerging practice of mindfulness.

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What is 'mindfulness' and how can it help you find joy?

What we aim to do with mindfulness is appreciate every moment, whether it’s joyful or painful. Mindfulness means living fully in the present moment. We miss out on pleasurable moments because we’re not fully engaged in what we’re doing; instead we’re all caught up in our thoughts.

How can beginners practice mindfulness?

A classic mindfulness training exercise involves eating a sultana. I tell people we’re going to take five minutes to eat a sultana, and I ask them what do you expect this will be like, and they say, “That’s impossible; it’ll be so boring, so tedious.” So we eat this sultana, slowly nibbling away at it, noticing every little aspect of eating and tasting: the teeth, the tongue, the jaw, the saliva, the changing taste and texture, the swallowing, etc. And afterwards, people say “Wow!” They can’t believe it; five minutes just went by in the blink of an eyelid.

And the usual comment is, “I never knew there was so much taste in one sultana.” After all, most of us just shovel them down our mouth by the handful while we’re watching TV, reading a book or lost in thought and we don’t really taste them.

So if you want to develop your mindfulness skills, next time you eat something, eat it as if you’re a curious scientist that has never tasted anything like this before. See if you can notice something new about it, like the movement of your tongue and teeth, and the changing taste and texture, and where on your tongue the taste is most intense.

How can it change your life?

As far as we know you only have one life, so you need to be in it to enjoy it. When you get all caught up in your thoughts, you’re only half-present; you miss out on the full experience. Going through your life all caught up in your thoughts is like watching a movie with your sunglasses on or listening to your favorite music with earplugs in. Thinking is a very useful skill. The problem is, the more our attention is taken up with our thoughts, the more we lose the ability to connect with the world through the five senses. It’s like our thoughts take over and we get caught up in a story about the world, rather than engaging directly with the world.

Why is it so important?

Mindfulness can change your life in thousands of different ways.

When you eat your food, you can truly taste it
When your children are playing with you, you can fully engage with them, instead of thinking about all the things on your to do list
When you’re listening to your partner talk about their day you can use mindfulness to tune into their body language and emotions
When you’re stuck in a traffic jam and feeling frustrated, mindfulness can help you anchor yourself in the present and find a calm space

And how can we harness it to improve our concentration?

It’s about paying attention – noticing, focusing and awareness. It’s not a thinking process. It’s done with an attitude of openness and curiosity: you can be open to your experience, and curious about it, even when it’s difficult or painful. Flexibility is essential, for at times you may want a very narrow focus and other times a broad focus. At times you may be focused internally, on your thoughts and feelings, and at other times focused externally on the world around you.

A beginner’s guide to a moment of mindfulness:

Next time you eat a mouthful of food notice the textures and the taste.
Go down your street and see if you can notice new things.
Next time you’re taking a shower, notice the water falling on your shoulders, the steam rising, how your body responds to the water.