When You Expand Your Consciousness, Your Life Changes

Jon Kabat-Zinn, one of the best-known promoters of mindfulness in the west, is convinced that when we expand our consciousness, our lives will change of their own accord.

Moreover, his message is not a vague, multi-interpretable, new-age affirmation. This academic researcher and meditation teacher has devoted his professional life to scientifically proving something that our most intimate human experience has recognized for decades, if not centuries and millennia: that inner exploration, introspection and deep connections help us make robust long-term change  in our behavior, our way of thinking and in our relationships.

According to an interview published in the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia  , mindfulness, or fully present awareness, allows us to actively pay attention to the present moment – ​​the here and now – without immediately making a mental judgment about it.

By developing this intrinsically available to everyone and present in all of us, we learn to embrace reality from within. Even at the neurological level, a significant and recordable shift is taking place.

Mindfulness isn’t just for enlightened gurus

The term “mindfulness” today is based on a large body of scientific, medical and psychological research, which shows again and again that the combination of Zen meditation and Vipassana is extremely beneficial for our physical and mental health.

Mindfulness has now helped almost countless patients with chronic pain, anxiety and panic problems, addictions, neuroses and countless similar and different physical and psychosomatic complaints.

We could therefore certainly say that the practice of full attention broadens our consciousness to such an extent that we can successfully effect changes in our attitude, our perspective and even globally, in our life as a whole. During mindfulness courses we are not expected to fall in love with life or make a fairy tale out of it. No, we are kindly and patiently invited to accept our existence in its entirety and experience it exactly as it is, in openness and clarity.

This is a unique and innovative approach, since practically all western medical disciplines are strongly focused on symptom control, on pain relief, on eliminating (acute) discomfort, on radically destroying physiological chaos and on the necessity of ‘normality’.

Enduring experience from non-judgmental presence

At school we are taught to think rationally about problems and their possible or especially correct solutions. Within the framework of mindfulness, however, you are above all encouraged to perceive, be and remain in your daily life without resistance, and to trust that true change will spontaneously take place from there. In addition, the aim of the person concerned is to get to know himself and his or her environment better and more thoroughly.

The structural neurological shifts that occur as a result of thorough mindfulness training are produced in brain regions related to learning and memory, and literally swell or dilate. In particular, we strengthen the mighty amygdala (remember this is the seat of emotions, the first whistleblower of threat and sudden danger, alerting the rest of our brain in no time).

In the aforementioned interview, Kaban-Zinn also explains that mindfulness training can even result in a modification of our genetic expression. He specifically highlights the following findings:

• The genes associated with inflammatory processes, and therefore cancer, are inhibited.
• The “density” or density and size of the brain, which normally decreases over the years, stop this shrinking and progressive porosity  when you meditate regularly.
• Neuronal connections appear and multiply.

How is it possible that all this can be achieved through mindfulness? What is the underlying or transcendent truth, or ultimate secret, behind the miraculous impact of this accessible and simple spiritual practice? There is no conceptually or intellectually satisfactory answer to that. And that’s not the most important thing! What matters is that we stop sleepwalking, that we no longer live like half a zombie or on autopilot. Let’s wake up and experience our everyday existence with full attention and presence. Without necessarily having to do or change anything, but above all by meditating and expanding our consciousness (which obviously requires some discipline and dedication).

If we really internally accept the negative thoughts (and accompanying feelings) that usually lead us into a negative spiral, give them space and remain silent witness, the chance that they will make their appearance again in the future becomes less and less likely. they receive less and less charge at the same time . Because not everything in life is beautiful and pleasant. That is precisely why it is essential that we expand our consciousness, so as not to become victims and promoters of such sneaky and ingrained destructive mental habits.

After all, a chronically distracted mind is a distracted, unhappy mind. Only when we focus, integrate and unite ourselves from within into one seamless whole, a resounding, unconditional  yes , will we achieve true health, well-being and wisdom. “ Cultivating mindfulness is a fundamental act of caring, love and compassion towards ourselves ”.