What is Dispositional Mindfulness?

You walk into a room, stub your toe, and suddenly, you are filled with rage and anger at the world. As a result of stubbing your toe, you scream and rant, swearing at your colleagues, and you end up demanding to know who placed the chair in your way because your stubbed toe is now their fault. Sounds familiar, right?

This is how many of us have reactions in our daily lives. We react to things that happen, but our reactions aren’t proportional at all. This is because we lack dispositional mindfulness. 

If you’ve never even heard of dispositional mindfulness (DM), then you’re not alone. Yet, the idea of dispositional mindfulness is taking the world by storm. What is it, and how do you cultivate it to ensure you can live your best life? Let’s find out. 

A Brief Definition of Dispositional Mindfulness

Mindfulness has become somewhat of a buzz word in the 21st century. Yet, it doesn’t only mean sitting in a pretzel position while you hum to some Buddhist chants. Instead, mindfulness means being fully present in each moment, to know who you are in that moment, and to know what forces are acting on you. 

With this mindfulness, you are able to act appropriately in each situation as you will be acting as a result of the influences in that situation.

This is great since it gives you perspective and clarity of thought. So instead of stubbing your toe and over reacting, you could deal with the painful incident in the context of the accident. Suddenly, the pain is less. 

What Is Required for Dispositional Mindfulness to Manifest?

Dispositional mindfulness means you accept that the only situation you have control over is the present one. Only in this moment can you change anything. The previous moment is gone, and the future one is not yet determined. 

To create a dispositional mindfulness, you have to create the mindset or habit of seeing the world through the lens of only being able to act on the now, based on what happens in that now. 

What Do You Cut Away With a Dispositional Mindset?

When you develop a dispositional mindset, you are cultivating a philosophy that affects how you read situations and how you act in each situation.

By following a dispositional mindset, you can begin to see each moment as a world on its own. This means you can focus more on things as they happen. 

Seeing the world through this lens helps you build a better focus and a deeper understanding of your experiences from moment to moment.

With a dispositional mindset, you can remove all the expectations and judgments from a situation so you can make a logical and useful decision. 

With the full awareness of your conscious mind, you are able to see the crux of a problem much clearer, and you apply this method to all aspects of your life. The result is a greater self-awareness and deeper insights into your life and world. 

Benefits of Dispositional Mindfulness

When you create a deeper state of mind, you move at a different energy level than before. This means you are more focused on your role in the world, and you see how you fit into the scheme of things, yet you feel no disappointment or contentment to your achievement. 

Since you know where you’re going, you cut away the number one killer—stress. Dispositional mindfulness can lead to:

• Lower stress or cortisol levels
• Decreased anxiety levels
• Better mental stability 
• Greater focus
• Increased sense of purpose

How to Create Dispositional Mindfulness

Creating dispositional mindfulness can be challenging if you’ve never practiced mindfulness before. Try these steps to build a greater dispositional mindfulness in your life:

• Remind yourself to look at the whole situation
• When you are in a situation, breathe in deeply before you take action
• Breathing deeply helps you distinguish between what is an action and what is a reaction
• Mentally step back and refocus on this particular moment only
• Practice being self-aware by doing activities such as meditation, walking, hiking, and cooking
• Keep pulling yourself back to each moment when your mind wanders and follow a routine that helps you develop personal focus
• Make thinking before you act or even say anything your new habit
• Like it is instinct to smile, building your dispositional mindfulness should become instinctual too

Enemies to Dispositional Mindfulness

Being mindful is a habitual choice. It is not always easy, and there are real enemies that seek to cause you panic. These are enemies to your mindfulness practice:

• Tension 
• Unresolved emotions 
• Fatigue
• Mental strain 
• Outside opinions

The Final Disposition

The goal of dispositional mindfulness is to become more focused, to make this your state of being, so you can create mindfulness as a character trait. How amazing it would be to slip into mindfulness with the ease of taking a breath and live your days at full capacity and kindness.