Knowing Is Not Doing: True Mindfulness

If you’re reading this, you probably consider yourself to be “on a spiritual path”…or at least you’re interested.  Maybe you woke up to spirituality last month…or 20 years ago.  In either case you’ve probably been studying various frameworks and belief systems.  You’ve read the Tolle, the Chopra, the Dyer, the Hicks.  And maybe those studies have lead you to draw some conclusions about your own beliefs.  Most of us start from zero…we don’t know what to believe (and also probably have some beliefs beaten into us by society to deal with in the process).  But by studying the thoughts of the great Masters old and new, we come to understand some of what they are trying to convey.  We begin to make sense of what we once considered impossibly abstract and unknowable.  We build beliefs based on what we see and what we intuitively know is correct and helpful for us.

We educate ourselves until we “know” what’s right.  Intellectually, we can tell anyone who cares to listen what the best guiding principles are.  We know.

But there’s knowing, and then there’s knowing.  For example, you might know that forgiveness is the right thing to do.  You know that hate or holding a grudge isn’t doing anything but to harm you – it has no effect whatsoever on the object of your hatred.  Yeah, you “know” that for sure.  But in your daily life, you still give the finger to that guy who cut you off in traffic.  The anger and frustration build as you wait in line behind that lady who takes so long to check out.  You roll your eyes at the mother in the store who loudly and cruelly scolds her child in public.  For many (if not most) of us, these reactions are automatic.

But at the same time, we “know” that our reactions are unhelpful.  It’s just that in the moment, we give in to our automatic, pre-programmed responses.  We know, but we don’t do..

This is where true mindfulness or consciousness come into play.  Changing your thoughts is the only way to change your life; and that includes those thoughts that are programmed into your subconscious.  It’s only by constantly remaining vigilant to our own thoughts and reactions that we can change them…nip them in the bud and take control.  Once we change those automatic reactions, that’s when we begin to experience the real change that we want.  That’s when we don’t just know the right thing to do…we actually do it.

So study, and think, and build your belief system.  And once you’re settled on what you think is right, internalize it and make it a part of you.  Don’t just know it – be it.