What can you be mindful of?

You can only be mindful of what you can be aware of. The human brain does essentially three tasks. It receives sensory input, it processes it, and it expresses a response.

Although you experience your senses with different parts of our body, the brain is the central processor of all those sensory experiences. You can be mindful of all the sensory input going to your brain as mindfulness is a skill that highlights the sensory experience. Let’s explore the sensory input to which you can apply mindfulness.

Most sources tell us that we have five senses:

• Sight

• Touch

• Smell

• Taste

• Hearing

Those senses generally bring information to your brain from the outside world.

You can be mindful and develop mindful awareness of the five basic senses.

Our brain picks up other information, primarily from the body, that we can become aware of. We could qualify the following as other “senses”:

• Proprioception (where our body parts are)

• Vibration

• Balance

• Movement

• Thermoception (too hot, too cold)

• Nociception (ability to feel pain)

You can be mindful and develop mindful awareness of all those “other” senses.

Our body is not limited to physical sensations such as pressure, tension, pain, warmth, cold and vibration, to name a few. We also experience emotional sensations like love, joy, surprise, anger, sadness and fear that we can feel in different places of the body such as in the face, throat, chest or belly, for instance. And sometimes, we experience some sensations in the body that we don’t really know what they are, but we still feel them in the body!

You can be mindful and develop mindful awareness of all those sensations.

In some traditions, thinking is added to the list of the senses. When you pay close attention to thinking, you might discover that your thoughts can appear to you in images on your inner mental screen. Your thoughts can also be heard as mental sounds and mental talk somewhere inside your head. Sometimes, thinking is a mixture of both mental images and mental talk. From a sensorial input perspective, you can actually see and hear your thoughts.

You can be mindful and develop mindful awareness of the thinking mind.

The brain is also an expressive organ. When you speak, your brain sends a signal to your vocal cords and some muscles of the mouth to express specific sounds. When you move any muscle of your body, your brain is the one coordinating such actions. And even thinking can sometimes be experienced as an expression of the brain.

You can be mindful and develop mindful awareness of the spontaneity and effortlessness of the expressiveness of your body and mind.