MINDFULNESS NOW

Our country is having a love affair with mindfulness.

It’s the new thing. The magic pill of our current time. And yet with all this talk about mindfulness, do we really find ourselves living more mindfully?

I can be found guilty of this trap. I stay up late researching and thinking about mindfulness, excited to have another tool to add to the arsenal. But, as with all tools, it only works when you work it. It can easily be turned into another source of anxiety, perfectionism, and added to the bulging to-do list.

So how can one really integrate mindfulness into their life? My best solution is NOW. Don’t wait. Take a breath now. Feel your belly. Is it Soft? Relaxed? Tight? Hard? Can you feel it moving with each breath?

How do your hands feel in this moment as they scroll and multitask...clenched, relaxed, warm, cool?

Are you resting in your seat or propped slightly above ready to jump up at a moments notice? Are you here? Where are you? Is it possible to notice how it is right now, without judgement...just with a gentle curiosity?

What if it’s that simple? There are many levels of mindfulness practices that can be learned and cultivated leading to deeper and deeper states of calm, resilience, and well being...but don’t wait for that perfect time to read the book, take the retreat, or do it just right. Do it now. Be here now. With your scurrying mind, your cramped toe, the itch in your neck. Your jiggly belly, your clenched jaw, your perfectly imperfect self. Notice it. Allow it. Love it.