What Can Mindfulness Add to My Life?

In our busy lives, we have to prioritize our time so that we don’t spread ourselves too thin over the many tasks and responsibilities that seem to keep piling up. So it’s understandable to ask, when we consider devoting time to an activity, what this pursuit will add to our life.

Given the commitment of time and energy required by mindfulness practice, it’s only reasonable to ask: What can mindfulness add to my life?

In my experience, mindfulness practice does not add anything to my life. On the contrary, it helps me put down some things. When life feels unfulfilling or burdensome, it’s usually not because it’s lacking something. If I look closely, I see that it’s usually because I’m holding on to something—fear of not getting what I want, anxiety about getting what I don’t want, judging myself or others—which keeps me separated from life. Instead of being completely alive and present in this moment of my life, I am living in my mind, because that’s where fears, expectations, and judgment reside.

So mindfulness practice is returning to our life and seeing our life as it is, moment to moment. We do that by putting down and letting go of all thoughts, biases, and deeply seated beliefs, because those ideas veil life from us. That’s the beauty of mindfulness practice. It helps us see our life clearly, without the veil of thinking and judgment.

And when we see our life clearly, we see that our life is already complete. We see that we are already complete. That means we don’t need anything extra, and our life doesn’t need anything extra.