Recently I read somewhere, “Mindfulness is heart, mind, and body in the same place.” It sounded good at the time and I understand the intent, but it isn’t wearing well with time. On reflection, I think it sets the bar too high. It may be better used as a compass, a direction to practice toward, than a goal. A more accurate statement may be Nirvana or enlightenment is heart, mind, and body in the same place. Not having experienced enlightenment, I may be making the same mistake in a different place. Mindfulness is being aware of the split and not rushing to alleviate it.
After living elsewhere for twenty years, I still find my heart and occasionally my mind back where I grew up. It is still where we vacatio. It is a beautiful place with pleasant weather. Many people with money agree and have bid the prices up out of my range. That’s a mind thing. They aren’t the people I grew up with and are not nice to live among. The landscape hasn’t changed. It’s still beautiful. That’s a heart thing.
Spiritual bypass would be to pretend it’s not so. I’m beyond that. To insist that nothing less than all in the same place is mindfulness is to cut off the bottom rungs of the ladder.
Mindfulness is staying aware of reality: internal, external, emotional, physical, and intellectual. And sitting with the awareness, not pretending it is otherwise.