Written by Noel Coakley

When we talk about mindfulness, many people assume we’re talking about concentration. And yes — with sustained practice, it can become easier to direct attention and stay with an object. But a much more important development than concentration is the clarity of awareness, and learning to operate from awareness.

Have you ever been lost in a daydream and suddenly snapped to, realizing you’re sitting at your desk and not, in fact, riding a majestic Luck Dragon? When you snap to, that’s clicking back into awareness. Thoughts were happening, but there wasn’t much witnessing of the fact that they were happening.

When we are lost in thought, whatever we’re thinking about feels like the whole universe. We’re just in it. But when we are aware of what we’re thinking, we aren’t completely identifying with it. It’s not quite as solid. We can hold it loosely; we can take it or leave it.

The same is true for emotions. The feeling can still be very much happening — there’s no need for denial or suppression — but it doesn’t have to consume our entire being. For example, there’s a significant difference between being angry and being aware that anger is here. Between “I am angry” and “anger has arisen.” Between “my leg is killing me” and “I’m aware that there’s a strong sensation in the leg.” That difference is everything.

Another way to say this is that there is a shift in our basis of operation. Instead of operating from the experience of a thought, emotion, or sense, we start operating from awareness. Over time, this shift deepens. We begin to recognize that we aren’t the stories we tell ourselves or any particular experience arising in mind and body. We are the field of awareness within which all of it arises.

That field has room for everything.

Mindfulness isn’t about getting rid of thoughts or emotions. It’s about changing where we stand. Instead of operating from the eye of the storm, we begin to operate from the entirety of the sky, within which the storm arises. That shift, though subtle at first, changes everything.