Continuing with a brief explanation of what one gets out of a classic mindfulness course:
Step 4# A Point of View
Steadily progressing through the course, we find that a more mindful state starts permeating day-to-day life. Increasingly, moments are lived in greater presence and awareness, opening up a landscape where experiences can become more insightful.
There’s an interesting exercise, for example, where I’m contemplating the same experience during different times of the day. I notice that my assessment varies with my mood. When I'm feeling irritable, the person ignoring me at the store is an ‘arrogant tosser’. When I'm happy, he was ‘probably stressed and absent-minded’.
Gradually I learn that every assessment of a situation has been filtered through my mood. Of course at any time you ask me, I know my perspective is the right one, "and I can justify it if you wish”. Yet at the same time it is but one point of view.
Noticing this again and again, I begin to have more flexibility in my judgements. They are less impulsive, less fragile and more reliable.
Author: JD