3 Superpowers You Can Gain From Mindfulness
Mindfulness has radically altered my life in the best possible ways.
It has:
Changed my beliefs
Changed my relationship to myself
Changed the way I operate in the world
If you want to change yourself or change your life, start with mindfulness.
The self-awareness you develop through mindfulness is the basis for personal growth. How can you possibly change without some degree of self-awareness?
But why let it be an occasional, fleeting aha? Instead, make mindfulness your foundational practice for personal growth. When you do, aha moments will gradually become more regular events and help you move toward everything you want to be and everything you want to accomplish.
Experts tout the health benefits of mindfulness—for example, how it can reduce stress, decrease symptoms of depression, and improve general health and well-being. They commend its ability to increase attention, focus, and clarity and thereby improve work performance.
All that’s marvelous, isn’t it?
But having studied and practiced mindfulness for more than twenty years and taught it for a good chunk of time too, I know it can have a far more transformative effect on you as an individual than one or two benefits alone.
Indeed, mindfulness can help you develop what I consider to be superpowers—rare qualities in modern times. Here are three for your consideration.
1. More Patience
Patience may sound boring at first. But wait a minute! Consider the negative consequences of impatience.
Impatience churns you up inside. It steals away your peace, contentment, and equanimity. Impatience is anger on slow burn. As such, it can lead to emotional explosions and seemingly uncontrollable aggression.
Road rage is one example of impatience on steroids. I’m sure you can think of times when you took your frustration out on someone else due to your own impatience. It may not have been as serious as road rage, but it can still make for unpleasant exchanges and damage relationships as well.
Patience is a superpower because it’s sorely lacking in our modern world. Ask any customer service representative how many times they’re verbally assaulted in any given day.
Patience means you can stay calm and clear-headed when things aren’t going your way. That can lead to positive solutions rather than energy-draining quarrels.
How does mindfulness help you develop patience? Mindfulness requires you to sit still for ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes at a shot.
At least for most people, that’s not easy at first.
You might feel restless and compelled to get up and get going more than once during any single meditation session.
You might nod off or daydream for minutes at a time.
You might feel a body sensation you’ve never noticed before that drives you crazy.
Thoughts of the past will pull you backwards and thoughts of the future will launch you forward. They’ll spark emotions that gnaw at your insides and can even feel unbearable at times.
A lot goes on in your mind during mindfulness meditation, at least in the early days.
With practice, however, you’ll be able to sit still and watch the movie of your mind and heart with more humor, distance, and self-compassion.
In time, the patience you develop during mindfulness meditation transfers to life as well.
You’ll no longer be perturbed by a traffic jam, a long line at the store, or an interminable wait for someone to answer your customer service call. Instead, you know how to relax into the moment and simply be present to yourself and the world.
Do you truly want to feel irritated, aggravated, and ready to explode every time things don’t go your way?
Choose patience instead. It brings inner piece.
“Inner peace begins the moment you choose not to allow another person or event to control your emotions.”—Pema Chödrön
2. More Empathy
Division marks our time. It leads to arguments, intimidation, violence, and even death. People want to push their opinions. They’re unwilling to listen to the views of others. Compromise is off the table.
And this isn’t limited to extremists. Everyday people argue their positions on social media, at the neighborhood hangout, and around the dinner table.
In such a volatile atmosphere, it’s easy to get baited and respond in combative ways. People who previously appreciated and enjoyed one another have become arch enemies.
Is this the world you want?
It seems like empathy has become a scarce commodity on this dramatic stage. And so, I consider it a superpower.
While there isn’t an easy or single answer to the challenge of division, mindfulness can help. It naturally gives you more empathy—unless you’re a full-blown, intractable narcissist.
So much of mindfulness meditation is observing your own thoughts and emotions. At some point during that process, you will come to see that many of your beliefs and reactions only lead to suffering for yourself and others.
This realization is the basis of positive change. Because why would you want to create suffering for yourself or anyone else?
Knowing this about yourself makes you appreciate that the same is true for others. Everyone wants to be happy. No one wants to suffer. But sadly, often our aim to be happy is in contradiction to the actions we take. Too often our actions lead to suffering instead of happiness.
That’s the craziness of the human condition. But you can escape this unfulfilling cycle.
Seeing your own tendencies through the regular practice of mindfulness empowers you to make positive changes. And it also lead to more compassion and empathy for others. You see they’re also driven by their conditioning, their wounds, and their false beliefs. Your heart breaks open.
Empathy help you build bridges instead of blowing them up.
We need more bridge builders, more harmonizers, and more empathetic people in this world of division, don’t we? Just think of how good it will feel to nurture peace instead of discord.
All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” — Blaise Pascal
3. Less Emotional Reactivity
Sometimes, we’re emotionally reactive because we disagree with a different point of view. But often, we’re easily affected by others because we take everything personally.
It seems to me, people are more emotionally damaged than ever before. And so, they operate from their wounds rather than from a sense of wholeness, confidence, and self-respect.
When you’re run by a set of incorrect beliefs about yourself and their corresponding emotional patterns, you can’t help but dig your own hole of distress deeper and deeper.
The practice of mindfulness on the other hand creates a sense of distance between you and your thoughts.
You won’t notice this on your first day of mindfulness mediation. You look and see a seemingly never-ending waterfall of thoughts and emotions instead.
But once you practice mindfulness for a while—a few weeks or a month or two—you’ll notice thoughts begin to slow down and there’s a gap between thoughts as well.
This allows you more space to respond differently or not respond at all. In essence you become less emotionally reactive.
Your relationships will naturally improve when you’re less emotionally reactive. You’ll also feel calmer and more in control of yourself—not in a tight way, but in a way that gives you true freedom.
“People with relaxed minds never lose their happiness. People with narrow, crowded minds are besieged by a life full of suffering, attachment, and aggression.”—Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Closing Thoughts
How many patient, empathetic, and emotionally mature people do you know?
Probably not that many because we’re all stuck in our stuff. That’s why I consider these three qualities superpowers. They’re powerful entry points to more peace for yourself and others.
And they’re almost natural outcomes of mindfulness.
To gain these superpowers, you need to learn mindfulness from a bonafide teacher and practice it regularly.
Because it varies from person to person, I can’t tell you how often or how much you need to practice.
I can say with confidence that I’ve seen people evolve dramatically over the course of a year and they started seeing shifts from early on. They may have hit roadblocks and even take breaks from mindfulness for periods of time. But if they have practiced regularly for the most part, I’ve seen mindfulness alter their lives in amazing ways.
Wouldn’t your life be far more pleasant if you had these superpowers? Mindfulness can make them yours.
[Photo by Cody Black on Unsplash]
Thank you for your presence, I know your time is precious! Don’t forget to sign up for Wild Arisings, my twice monthly letters from the heart filled with insights, inspiration, and ideas to help you connect with and live from your truest self.
You might also like to check out my Self-Care Shop. May you be happy, well, and safe – always. With love, Sandra
