Mindfulness for Beginners – The Beginner’s Mind

Mindfulness is a practice of being purposefully aware of ourselves and being fully present in the moment. With practice, we become more fully attentive to our thoughts, actions, sensations, and feelings in the moment. As we explore mindfulness for beginners, we first need to recognize the beginner’s mind.

Nurturing a Beginner’s Mind

A beginner’s mind holds an attitude that is open to what is present in the moment. When we are fully present in the moment, life is experienced as if for the first time. This moment has never been experienced before. It is unknown, brand new, unique, and full of possibilities. Experiencing the moment in this way frees us of assumptions, expectations, and routine. As we do this, we are opened to an in-flow of intuition, creativity, joy, miracle, and wonder.

Finding the Consciousness of a Child

Observing young children at play can provide us with an example of Beginner’s Mind. When at play children are exploring, discovering, and inventing. They are not thinking of everything that must be accomplished in the day. They aren’t preoccupied with the afternoon, the evening, or tasks they need complete. They are engaged in the broad and minute details of the moment, and the wonder of its unfolding. Children at play are open to all possibilities.

This is referenced In the New Testament when Jesus says, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”. This can be understood to mean that the practice of the beginner’s mind (becoming like little children) is a path to higher consciousness (heaven).

Managing Our Expert

Practicing mindfulness for beginners can be difficult when we perceive ourselves to be experts at something. Being an expert requires that we are focused on logic, reason, and patterns that rule the expert mind. The personality (ego) is attached and invested in knowing the answers and how others perceive our accomplishments and expertise. When we live patterns of the past and expectation, we exclude potential new and unknown experience. This can have a choking effect on creativity and intuition.

Living with a beginner’s mind opens us to awe and excitement for the unknown. Spend this week being mindful in the moment and recognizing where you are wanting to be an expert. How does this close off possibility? When you notice your inner expert, thank them, and give them permission to withdraw so you can cultivate being fully in the moment. As you open to unfolding gifts and wonder, joy will follow.

Learn more:

The Benefits of Mindfulness

Mindfulness on PsychologyToday.com