Mindfulness is an important practice, but it should be done holistically

As humans, self-awareness is our most important strength. We have the capacity to watch over ourselves. If we do this with a neutral mind, looking at our body, breath, mind, and senses, we can term that as “mindfulness.” This is an important practice in ancient meditation pathways. It is also increasingly widely used nowadays, and that is good.

By watching over ourselves, we can see our patterns, observe what causes us distress and what helps us. Through that observation, intelligent self-transformation is possible.

It can be challenging to become aware of the distractions and disturbances in our body, mind, and senses. But just noticing ourselves is not the end of the practice. Ideally, we must combine the practice of mindfulness with other tools that can support holistic growth towards greater wellbeing.

Mindfulness opens the door to seeing the habits in us that promote ill-health or unhappiness—as calmly and non-reactively as possible. Then we can use other methods to change those habits: movement, breathing, lifestyle change, diet change, visualization, meditation and more.

Traditionally in the yoga path, this is why we have eight limbs of yoga covering various aspects of our self. Mindfulness is a companion to all other practices, not a substitute for them. For instance, self-awareness can help us notice when our body and mind are restless. We can then use steady breath and movement or a simple mantra to ground ourselves. This in turn will also make the mindfulness practice itself more effective: we can be present and watch over ourselves with greater ease when the breath, movement, or mantra have given us more steadiness.

All wellbeing practices, mindfulness included, are best done in a holistic framework. Yoga and ancient wellbeing systems guide us towards that wisdom and application.