Foundational Attitude of Mindfulness: Non-striving

Non-striving might also be referred to as non-doing. This isn't about apathetic laziness or unwillingness to act or lack of desire to achieve something. In mindfulness meditation we practice to cultivate a witnessing, observing mind. If you practice mindfulness meditation with the objective to ease tension and relieve stress, for example, you might sit quietly breathing, noticing places of tension in the body and the reaction would be to actively work (strive) to release the tension. But in this pillar of non-striving, the thing to know is that the stress reduction and ease will come naturally as an outcome of non-doing, from the awareness more than the physical activation of releasing the muscles.

While sitting in meditation, you are practicing the act of witnessing, observing, noticing, of being aware and awake to whatever may arise in any given moment. Whether you are comfortable or uncomfortable, emotional or balanced, activated, triggered or calm, whether you are critical and making judgements or having thoughts, no matter what you may be experiencing, the point is not to try to change anything about the experience in the moment, but to notice and acknowledge your present moment experience, feel it in your body, to be aware of where you're feeling it, to experience it, and to accept that "it is This" right now, whatever This is (you don't need to name it; many experiences are beyond the language we have to express them verbally). You are simply an observer of what is occurring. You are not manipulating or changing anything in this moment.

In the example of realizing you are tense when you sit down to meditate, you might be striving to relax. But try to be observant about the tension, where it is in your body, how it feels, notice the stream of thoughts you may be having about it ("Why am I so tense? I sat at my computer hunched over for 12 hours today. I am working on a deadline..." etc.). Notice the thoughts, acknowledge you're having thoughts, even label them mentally as thoughts if that helps. Try not to get absorbed in the stream of thoughts. You may come to a point where you notice sensations in the body, such as overwhelm as an example, if the stream of thoughts gets out of hand. Again, notice what's happening without trying to change anything. Label the sensations and feelings if that helps, such as "chest, overwhelm" or "stomach pit, falling" and if the sensations don't have words or names, don't worry about labelling them, just be aware of them. Notice that they come in and maybe stay for a couple of minutes and then maybe they move on and something else comes into awareness. Continue observing in this way until you are ready for the practice to end. Once practice is completed, you may notice you still have tension in your shoulders and you really want to Do something to ease it. So now, mindfully, because you've created this space of awareness in which you have freedom to make a choice and act deliberately rather than to react autonomously, shrug your shoulders up and down, do some shoulder rolls, spend a few minutes doing some yoga or stretch the neck and shoulders.

One of my main objectives in starting a mediation practice was to reduce stress. While the overall objective is ever-present, the results of having less stress have come from developing the muscle of the witnessing mind, so to speak. The practice of non-doing, of simply observing without striving, of watching without (re)acting, accumulates much in the same way "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" evolves to "Moonlight Sonata" when you take years of piano lessons and practice, practice, practice. Cultivating the skill, developing that muscle, creating that space to breathe and have that moment of freedom in which to choose what's next, is the non-striving, non-doing way that you will notice a difference in your relationship to stress. A shift in how you relate to stress is a natural outcome of non-striving. What a paradox!

Can you relate to this paradox? I'd love to read your thoughts on this in the comments below!