I watched three hummingbirds sitting still near the feeder this morning. If they can stop, so can I. Technology is addictive, so I am working on more mindfulness and less electronics.
I started the morning by sitting in my front room by the window. I heard dog tags jingle in passing, bird talk, car tires on the wet road. I noticed my breath. I was not meditating but I was being mindful enough to follow my breath. It flowed unimpeded by electronic notifications.
For meditation, I rested on my back and brought light and air into myself, a living compost pile. It can be steamy and stinky and stuck or it can be circulated, invited to mingle with the elements and revitalized in this active blending. A harmonious and engaged peaceful riot of being awake and asleep.
Being mindful is being where you are and not trying to get away or distract or decide if where you are is good or bad.
I see meditation as a way to create moments to collect oneself so as to be more resourceful in interactions.
Mindfulness beats placebo, according to recent studies. Even when applied to chronic pain, including physical and emotional.
Savoring is one antidote to suffering. When I go paddling, I savor the river.
Our brains tend to focus on the negative. We habitually overlook the positive and rush toward the negative. We can practice savoring, stretching out the positive or pleasurable.
We need to have portals that allow things in that we need, and usher things out that we don’t need to keep hold of.
Being mindful isn’t limited to meditation. Paddling on top of the water, we whooped and barked and honked across the water. This pushes out stuck energy. It’s a combo of silly and primal. Primal silly therapy.
It doesn’t really take much time to be mindful. I’ve noticed how time expands when doing it. A mindful minute can feel like a half hour. With fewer distractions and busyness, everything slows down.
This comes back to awareness.
What I am told by my teachers is awareness provides us opportunity to redirect our attention from our default-mode mental projections and reconnect with what is actually happening in each moment.
Mindfully gobble up all the mindfulness you can process, digest, recycle, and contribute. It’s a public health contribution that beats placebo!
loved it, another nice presentation of good truth and your own style- I only hope that Spice was paid three cents, the standard cat fee for posing in a blog post! and you used your hambone photo too! really, it was great and such a good reminder…if only now to do it! be here and now!
Dear Poison Oak Fred, Spice was paid the standard cat fee for allowing her image used in the blog. Of course I used my tree ham pose!
another great blog. just reading it made me feel more peaceful. I meditate almost every day . I am continually amazed that even when I feel tired and that I might fall asleep while I mediate, I always feel refreshed and more alive, more aware, more ready, when I finish.