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In the Mindful Musings series, MiMo Founder and Mindfulness Coach Erin shares her personal thoughts and views about the practice of mindfulness.  I like to observe the environment around me, especially when I'm commuting from one place to another on the train. One thing I notice is how as a society living in crowded spaces, our physical bodies are so close in proximity to one another - sometimes in an almost smothering way during the peak hours, but our mind is often miles apart, not just from person to person, but also from ourselves. As I scan the space around me on the train, I find it interesting that the first thing I see would always be the crown of people's heads. Everyone would be looking down at their phones - either busy replying to messages, or browsing the web, or playing a game. Occasionally, they would look up to check which station the train was at, and then resume to bowing down to their gadgets again. Their attention would almost never leave the screen in front of them. I would then look more closely at their faces and expressions, and what I often recognize is a shared sense of deep-seated exhaustion - perhaps leftover from a day of working and firefighting, or from a lack of restful sleep at night, or from some personal troubles. I would think, if people are so tired, why don't they close their eyes and rest for a while? Why do they choose to have an external object drain more energy from them? Perhaps they don't want to know how tired their body feels, or they dread facing how much is on their mind, so watching a random video on their Facebook feed would obviously be a much "easier" option. As a society, we are collectively exhausted, and we don't know it. Or rather, we don't want to know it. We are living in a world full of external objects that stimulate the mind, and we have gotten so used to being absorbed in them or using them as a distraction, that we no longer have the capacity to turn our attention inwards to tend to what's going on inside us. Keeping ourselves occupied with something, even when we don't need to, seems to be much more accessible than just sitting and being with ourselves. But what we are giving up in exchange for a coping mechanism masked as a temporary relief from having to confront our exhaustion, is the opportunity to know the mind and body for what they are, and how they are doing. In the practice of mindfulness, we train ourselves to constantly turn our attention inwards to observe the mind and body. Being mindfully aware of what's going on inside us may seem counter-intuitive at first, since we instinctively want to avoid or fight off anything that feels unpleasant or negative to us; but when we are able to rest our attention inwardly, we can then recognize what the body is being put through, as well as understand what the mind may be unnecessarily holding on to, thus becoming better able to take care of ourselves.
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In The Mindful People Series, we interview people from different walks of life and get them to share their mindfulness experience, as well as how learning and practicing mindfulness have made a difference to their personal and professional lives  MiMo: How did you get into learning and practicing mindfulness? David: I am a curious and adventurous person who is always eager to learn new things. As a trainer and organization consultant, I am always looking for new ways and techniques to constantly remind myself to have a clear mind and engage events with different perspectives. As a practitioner of NLP (Psychological) and Whole Brain Thinking Metaphor (Social), I want to enhance in the area of Physiology. Therefore, searching the Internet, I chanced upon the practice of Mindfulness. MiMo: Tell us about your experience in the MBSR program. David: It has been an eye opener and great experience. My course mates were great. Initially, it was a tough challenge to attend all the weekend classes. After the first three lessons and daily practices, I realized that I was experiencing different physical experiences. Erin was great. She was always very patient and helped us overcome detractors during the practices. The frequent weekly group sharing was very motivating and encouraging. I could see that towards the end of the course, most of my course mates were very different in their physical appearances and were engaging people with very positive body gestures. MiMo: How has mindfulness contributed to your personal well-being? David: I am beginning to enjoy my surroundings better, becoming more patient with events happening daily, and more importantly, appreciating things from a different perspective. I am also able to recognize the physical sensations I feel when I am about to burst, and I am able to manage myself well before I exploded. MiMo: How has mindfulness supported you in your professional work? David: It has helped me to maintain a clear mind where at times my work can be very overwhelming ("Mind Full"). I am also able to integrate Mindfulness into my training agenda and help my clients/students cope better with the mental, social and physical aspects of their lives. MiMo: How have you incorporated mindfulness into your daily life? David: I have been making it a point to continue the daily practices whenever possible amidst my daily activities. MiMo: Any words of advice for people who are thinking about learning mindfulness? David: It is a great practice that I would say all humans should learn and practice. It has very diverse benefits and suits people from all walks of life. ------  About David Ong David has more than 25 years of Managing, Developing and Training Human Capital both local and regional countries which includes, Japan, Myanmar, Bhutan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and various provinces of China. His vast training experiences and travels make him a close Business Consultant with numerous corporations, partnering them in their Organization Development in areas related to Values and Culture, Training Needs Analysis, Training Evaluation and Leadership Competency Model. His niche areas are delivering Leadership Competency Related Programs; ie, Project Management, Change Management, Decision Making, Problem Solving, Creativity, Innovation, Negotiations, Diversity Management, Team Enhancement, Communications, People Skills and Human Behavioral Science(Psychology/Sociology). His passion in Human Behavioral Science has seen him further studied in the fields of Education-Adult Learning and Psychology-Behaviors. Are you a mindfulness practitioner or do you know one who would like to share their mindfulness experience on the MiMo blog? Do drop us a message!
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About The AuthorMiMo founder Erin Lee is a Mindfulness Coach and MBSR Teacher at Mindful Moments, and advocate of mindfulness as the way of life. She conducts the classic 8-Week MBSR Program, as well as the 8-Week MBSR Workplace Program. 
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ContributeAre you a mindfulness practitioner and have meaningful experiences or thoughts about mindfulness that you'd like to share? You can contribute an article on the MiMo blog! Please contact Erin to find out more.
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