Recently I was asked how I define Mindful. I had written a piece about it way back when and decided to revisit it...
Mindful….being present….living right now in this moment, not clouding it with what was or what might be. It’s being in tune with what’s happening and our place within that moment in time. It’s awareness at its best because it’s not clouded with judgment, expectations or assumptions. It just is. And because you’re totally present in that moment in time, you are free of the burdens of the past and the ‘what might be’ in the future. You can observe, accept, …..move on. And because you’re totally aware, leaving the emotional and intellectual baggage behind, you can be free to think of possibilities, have the mental space to create new ideas and grow within your life.
Being mindful, as a client described to me, was watching me be like a huge rock in the center of a fast moving river. The water is hitting it from all angles, but the rock remains calm, steadfast. Being mindful within a chaotic moment is a way for you to create mental space within which you can create, grow as an individual and be open to whatever it is that comes your way.
It gives you a balance between what is happening and what you’re doing within that event. There is no good, no bad, just the truth of the moment. It transcends you.
You are mindful when you no longer identify with emotion or feeling. You are no longer afraid, confident or outlandish. You are a person who is experiencing those feelings right then. You are not at one with them. You are more than each emotion. Mindfulness is a part of life, work, personal, all parts of your life. When you are open to all that is around you, you grow in leaps and bounds and learn without filters. And in experiencing each moment in time, you free yourself up to invent your future, one day at a time.
The first step is in eliminating the ‘whens’. I will be happy when….. I will be content when…… I will no longer be afraid when….. When emotions are conditional upon what might happen one day, you will not be truly alive in the present. That day in the future begins right now.
