How can you tell if you’re mindful?

Last night I was cleaning the kitchen and began doing many things at once: thinking about life. Wiping the counters. Putting pots and pans into the sink to soak. Opening the dishwasher and emptying it by putting spoons into drawers and cups into cupboards.

At one point I noticed all the doors to the cupboards were open and thought “if I am not careful, I’m going to whack my head”.

I hit my forehead on an open cupboard door about a minute later. It hurt a lot, but it also made me angry at myself, because I knew it was going to happen. I could have paused, slowed down, closed the cupboard doors, done one thing at a time.

Instead, I became a victim of my own foreshadowing.

What I just described is the opposite of mindfulness.

Mindfulness requires two things: a sense of awareness of the present moment - a full body and mind arrival at right here, right now - and

An acceptance of everything this moment is (what I am doing, what I am thinking, what I am feeling), without judging it. No “this is bad!” or “this is good!” but rather “this just is.”

I don’t know if I am ever mindful but I believe I would get pretty close if I could slow down, do one thing at a time and let the dust of my thoughts settle. Feel the rhythm of my breath and the way it irrigates every bit of me. Notice the weight of my butt and the back of my legs on this high chair. Witness the change - from blue to yellow - of the morning light. And maybe not be so hard on myself. Suspending judgment is for me the hardest part.

(Drawing by Dan Roam)