Mindfulness is the Opposite of Neediness

I don’t have any data to back this up, but I’m convinced meditation makes your phone battery last longer.

I’ve known for a long time that life gets easier the more frequently I sit and meditate, but this time the principle behind it is very clear: mindfulness is the opposite of neediness.

This is not something we do automatically. We’re highly reactive creatures, still calibrated for the savannah. We can experience a fight-or-flight adrenaline reaction over a dot of mustard on a shirt cuff. Non-reactivity and non-neediness have to be practiced, and there’s no safer and easier a time to do that than when you’re sitting on a cushion i... See more

When I’m meditating consistently, I simply have fewer impulses to entertain and comfort myself, because ordinary moments feel more than good enough, most of the time. The smart phone is good barometer of this impulse, because it’s used as an instrument of escape much of the time—escape from boredom, escape from making the next decision, escape from... See more

regular meditation makes me more mindful throughout the day. Whenever you’re being mindful, the present moment doesn’t seem to need improvement.

Mindfulness is a basic respect for the present moment

And your phone battery lasts longer, because not many moments make you want to turn away from them and look at a tiny screen instead.

The basic idea is to gently observe some part of this sea of experience, usually the breath at first, and whenever you notice the mind has wandered, you return it back to the present. The most important part is of this attention-paying is to do it mindfully—that is, to simply notice what it is currently like, suspending any intention to change it. ... See more

This fearing and hoping we attach to many experiences is a kind of visceral neediness—a demand for the present moment to be easier, safer, or more comforting than it actually is. Developing mindfulness means practicing a kind of unconditional courage. You are always willing to experience reality exactly as it is when it arrives.