Jeremy Heckt's Blog

Mindfulness and Discipline: The Same Thing?

I got to thinking the other day as to whether people who are "highly disciplined" are actually just "highly mindful". It seems as if a lot of the two words overlap in regards to their meaning when talking about human beings. When one thinks of someone who is disciplined, you also think of someone who is acutely aware of their surroundings, as well as acutely aware of their mental faculties. Both traits are ones that I want in myself, so do I focus on mindfulness or discipline? I think they may overlap so much that they can be classified as essentially the same thing. When one practices mindfulness you begin to become more aware of why you are thinking things: why you crave that beer, why you want cannabis, why you do not want to get off your butt to write your blog post. I think as this year progresses and I continue down my mental health journey I will be able to gain both discipline and mindfulness at the same time by doing the same things. Just one usually involves lifting more weights than the other.