A mindful journey

Change is inevitable in life, and I have written much about this here. Some of us react to change in a maladaptive manner that can be injurious to self, some respond with equanimity and acceptance, and many of us do a bit of both. We are after all human, and a little flawed :-). And we are all beautiful. It’s true, though at times we have difficulty seeing that in ourselves or in others.

In moments of change, great or small, what do you do?

You know the times of peace and rightness, when you are grounded and know that all will be well, that life is indeed a journey and must be experienced. Every perceived curveball is an adventure, every obstacle a challenge to show you how strong you can be. You move forward, one step at a time, hopefully still appreciating the lessons to be learnt, listening to the messages the Universe is sending.

And then you have moments of self-doubt, fear, anger or confusion. When you just want to shout at the heavens, ‘why me?’ You may find yourself immobilised, stuck, unable to form a sensible thought, a coherent plan…nothing works.

In times like these, I go to a place deep within me. I look into this sacred well and see reflected there the parts of me that were momentarily forgotten, dismissed, undermined, devalued… the parts that will serve me. The intelligent me, the rational me, the loving me, the creative me, the assertive me, the confident me…whichever that I need to call upon in that moment. I gaze into the well, noticing the calm of the water, listening to the silence, feeling the gentle crisp air on my face, sensing my body falling into weightless support… until I reach the parts of me I need to revive.

And I do this through meditation, specifically mindfulness. Mindfulness allows me to watch myself – my reactions and to be aware of what I need in the moment. It creates a space for me to harness my resources and to generate responses that are true to my values.

Which brings me to this – I have signed up for an online challenge to raise funds to provide clean water to people in developing countries. Called ‘Mindful in May‘ this challenge is to meditate for at least 10 minutes each day for the month of May. Sounds simple but often, I forget. Especially now, this is a habit to entrench.

So why don’t you join me? Register to be mindful for a good cause. Every day you will receive an instructional email to assist in your meditation. Alternatively, support the cause by sponsoring my efforts. Any amount is welcomed. Oh to be abundantly clear, I do not obtain any benefit to promote this challenge.

I am doing this because I believe mindfulness practice is awesome. Mindfulness teaches us to love ourselves a little bit more each day, it removes the judgment we hold about ourselves. It creates a still mind, a focused mind, which leads to an incisive mind.

Why not learn a new tool (if you must call it that though I see it as a way of being) to help ourselves become more aware? And while doing this, you are providing those in poverty with clean water, a basic human need.

Namaste!

– FlorenceT

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