Mindfulness as mental hygiene

Being discussed more and more lately, especially during and after this global lockdown caused by Covid 19, the mindfulness concept can be again mentioned on our list of priorities.

Because, keeping us away from going outside, the virus forced us to look inside.

“Ooof, this thing – looking on the inside – is difficult.”

True, it is difficult, because our mindset is, from the moment we were born, to look on the outside.

To be the top student in school, to have the highest grades. To get on the podium in competitions, to be the best in any kind of human interaction, be it a competition or not. We learn from the very beginning to look and to relate to the ones next to us, to be in a continuous competition with them.

When in fact the meaning of growth is different – the meaning of evolving is the relation to oneself. You can only evolve by surpassing yourself , only this way you expand to the area of vertical knowledge and not only horizontal, only in this way you become creative.

And creativity happens more quietly – it’s related to the right cerebral hemisphere, and not to the left. It’s about the minutes we give ourselves every day. Morning coffee quietly and without interruption caused by emails or social media, the hour dedicated to workout which is the time we spend with our body. The moment we notice a flowering tree on the road or a sky reddened by the sun. The unlimited attention we give to a child and the immersion in the pages of a good book. The dedication for something we do with love.

All these are measures of mental hygiene. All are summed up by mindfulness.