When I talk to people about their woes of life, I’ve began to recognize a few consistencies. One major thing I’ve noticed is that people aren’t using their God-given superpower: mindfulness
~With all things, first be mindful~
Mindfulness. There is a lot of power in that simple term & it’s something I practice everyday if not in every moment. First, what does being mindful truly mean?
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mind·ful·ness (noun)
1. The quality or state of being conscious or aware of something.
"their mindfulness of the wider cinematic tradition"
2. A mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.
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So basically-mindfulness is checking yourself before you check somebody else. Mindfulness is not only being present, but being fully aware of what you’re doing, what’s going on around you and not letting people or things get you overwhelmed- or worse, steal your joy. Mindfulness is being fully aware of what does and does not feel good AND then making the conscious steps to only follow those feel good feelings.
I personally like to think that using mindfulness is me being an active co-creator in my life and not allowing anybody else to write the script. You’d be surprised, but once you begin to control your reactions and the way that you are affected by things, the more control you have on your life. And the more you’ll see that those “negative triggers” start to drift away.
Im not saying this is an easy practice-but with more practice it gets easier. Begin by just taking a pause, by taking a few deep breathes before you react. You can begin that right now! If you have a meditative practice,that’s also another great place to begin. (This is also a great beginning to the start of a meditative practice 😁)
The beautiful thing is that mindfulness is readily available to each and everyone of us. And it’s never too late to start a daily practice of mindfulness. I love self-care skills that involves nothing but a little bit of time. And if you’re thinking to yourself- “I don’t have time to meditate. I don’t have time to take a few breathes,” than you are in the category of people who are in desperate need of some mindfulness techniques. Also some lessons on self care- but that would just get me on another tangent.
Cheers to taking care of yourself, first 🥂
XOXO,
Tonia Simone