Take no thought for tomorrow! Mindfulness & Meditation… Learning to live in the present moment! 🧘♀️ 🧘🏽♀️
I’ve been told on several occasions that coming to visit me and my family is like living in a Zen garden, and THAT is on purpose! My house, my family and my life, are all My spaces and years ago, I purposely chose to have my spaces and my life drama and chaos free!
Now with this intent in mind, during that same time I was introduced to “Mindfulness" through a graduate course, and it was at that time I made the decision to change my environment and my life, and I began to put Mindfulness into action in my and my family’s life!
So, what exactly is “Mindfulness”? In trying to avoid going into a deep review of Mindfulness and where it originated, one thing you should know is that it is a practice that has been around for thousands of years and it is not something that’s related to any one religion or culture.
Being a Minister, I am cognizant that a lot of Christians tend to believe that mindfulness and any other psychological or physiological practices may be taking you down a road to being introduced to another religion or even another God, but let me be the first to tell you that this is just not true. Yes, Mindfulness is a practice that can be practiced by all religions from Buddhism to Judaism, but take comfort in knowing that you are not asked to practice any religion or idolize any god but the one you are already believing in.
When we examine “being present” or even staying “Mindful” of the moments we are in, in life, even the Bible tells us to do things like “Take no thought for tomorrow,” “Keep our minds on things that are pure and just and of good report” And “To be anxious for nothing.” And these scriptures are right in line with being mindful and living in the present moment.
Despite the numerous ways there are out there to describe what the author and well-known American instructor Jon Kavat-Zinn calls a “way of living” or “paying attention in a particular way”; Mindfulness to me can be described simply as being in the present moment. It’s a way of being, a way of living!To break it down a little further, Mindfulness is paying attention to nothing but where you are and what you are doing at that moment in time. It’s sitting down to dinner and feeling the silver fork in your hand, it’s smelling the aroma of your food, it’s tasting the various flavors in the food, it’s feeling the comfort of the chair you are sitting in, it’s feeling your feet firmly placed on the floor and being aware of the surroundings you are in at that timeand in that moment! It’s not getting your food, devouring it or rushing through it and thinking about getting back to work, or thinking about getting on to the next task. You see Mindfulness is about what you focus on. You are focusing on the moment you are in at that time and place in your life, and you do not have to practice any type of religion to learn to stay focus and stop multitasking your way through life!
Unfortunately, as humans in society today we have been indoctrinated into believing that multitasking is a good thing and that to achieve any kind of success in life we need to be able to focus on multiple things at one time. Even moms have embraced the term and are becoming proud at being multi-tasking moms or moms who juggle the kids, cooking dinner and a 9 to 5!
So how do you learn Mindfulness you may ask? Well over a series of blogs I’m calling “Mindful Moments” You will learn that Mindfulness is not just a technique for one way of living, but it is a total way of living. So,seeing that there are various types of Mindfulness techniques from Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction to Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, for the sake of this blog,I will introduce you to 5 things that learning Mindfulness will do for your life. The techniques are simple, direct and so effortless that you can begin to introduce them into your life today.
Listed below are 5 things that learning Mindfulness will do to your life!
1. Make you become aware of your body, mind and environment.
2. Make you live in the present moment in life.
3. Make you more focused on things that are important in your life.
4. Make you better at bringing your mind, body and spirit in synch with each other.
5. Make you more accepting of yourself and others in life.
So, this is Mindfulness in a nutshell, but seeing that it is a lifestyle there are many more steps to incorporating Mindfulness into your life! In the next Mindful MomentsBlog I’ll include ways to “Begin your morning with Mindfulness”, so that you can get your day started off right! So, until next time, Always Stay Mindful of your Moments in life!
Love, Kisses and Teacups!
Always In His Grace!
Toinette Neube