“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky.
Conscious breathing is my anchor.”
― Thích Nhất Hạnh

Good morning! As we wrap up our month of "Mindfulness" today, I want to share a terrific article by a favorite author of mine, Debra Lynn Dadd.  Debra has been hailed as the "Queen of Green," and is the author of several best selling books. I hope you enjoy her article!

I have a Visual Inspiration for you today, as well! Enjoy! ♥

"Everyday Mindfulness"

By Debra Lynn Dadd

Mindfulness is a Buddhist term for a practice found in many spiritual traditions. It is the process of observing that which is around you, eventually coming to be aware that one's essential spiritual nature is that which is doing the observing.

How often do you go through life not being aware of much that is happening? As I sit here at my computer writing, I am focused on the words appearing on the screen as I type them, but at the same time, if I expand my awareness, I am also aware of the quiet sound of the ceiling fan overhead, the sensation of the breeze on my bare arm, the ticking of the clock, the fragrance of the rose on my desk, the feel of the floor beneath my feet, the taste of water as I take a sip, the darkness outside my window at this early morning hour. All these things were happening, but until I chose to become "mindful" of them, I wasn't aware of them, or experiencing them.

I first experienced this when I was six years old. I was instructed to observe my body.  It was fairly easy for me to see that "I" was observing my body, which was something separate from the "me" that was observing it. Then I was instructed to observe a thought. Oh, well, yes, I could observe thoughts in my mind. I could think some words or look at a picture in my mind, and the words and pictures weren't "me" either. And then I was asked, "What is doing the observing?" Of course, "I" was doing the observing, but "I" was neither body nor my mind…"I" was a spiritual being.

We live in a world where the common viewpoint is that we humans are bodies, and we "look within" to find our minds and our spirits.

As an aware spiritual being, I experience myself at the center of my universe. There is "me," a spirit, and everything in the physical world is "my environment." I look "out" to my mind and body and the surrounding environment.

Mindfulness is easy to practice. You don't need any special place or equipment or skill. You can do it sitting or standing or lying down or even walking or swimming or running. Because it is simply you–the spiritual being that is you–being aware of what you are thinking, feeling, doing and what is going on around you. And the more you are intentionally aware, the more aware you become.

When I lived in California, I lived near an organic farm run by a group of Zen Buddhists. They also had a Sunday morning lecture, after which they served a simple vegetarian meal, including food from their farm. Anyone could go there and volunteer to work in the fields or the kitchen. The whole idea of being there was to be mindful of everything you were doing, to keep your attention on the task at hand and to not let your mind wander off…for you, the spiritual being, to guide your mind and hands as you worked. It's a whole different experience to actually do what you are doing while you are doing it, and nothing else. To be completely present in a moment, not thinking of the past or wondering about the future, but just being there, doing something, with all your attention…it's an amazing thing.

One of the things I love about my husband is that he can be fully present with me when he is with me. His attention is on me, listening, observing, touching, and being with me. He's not somewhere else while his body is with me, he is with me. And I am with him. It's a very different experience than being with someone while they have their attention on something–or someone–else.

Being mindful can have many benefits. It certainly would be safer to drive a car, for example, if you were mindful of all the traffic, street lights, and weather conditions around you. It would be easier to choose healthy foods if you were mindful of how your body felt–both good and bad–when you ate specific foods. Relationships improve when you become mindful of the wants and needs and thoughts and feelings of people around you. Mindfulness is a very practical thing.

It's easy to start being more mindful. As you are sitting reading, right now, just observe the moment. What are you thinking? What are you feeling? How does your body feel in general? How do specific parts of your body feel–fingers, toes, nose, eyes, stomach? How is your body's breathing? How is your body's heartbeat? What is the temperature of the room? What is the degree of light? What do you see around you? What do you smell? What do you hear? What are you touching right now? How does it feel? Is there movement in the air, or is it still?

Ultimately, what we know of ourselves and others and of the world all comes from our ability as spiritual beings to observe and be aware. Mindfulness is this ability in action.

Copyright Debra Lynn Dadd. All Rights Reserved.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments on today's article! Please scroll down and leave your comments below.

Wishing you a beautiful, mindful day!

Soulfully,
Valerie

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“Welcome the present moment as if you had invited it.
Why? Because it is all we ever have."
― Pema Chödrön

Good morning! I'm super excited to share one of my most favorite articles with you, by best-selling author and Buddhist teacher and nun, Pema Chödrön. Pema is the author of "When Things Fall Apart," "The Places that Scare You" and "Start Where You Are." Her article, "Learning to Stay" teaches us the practice of "Sitting Meditation," also known as "Mindfulness Awareness Practice.

I hope you enjoy her article! ♥

"Learning to Stay"

By Pema Chödrön

As a species, we should never underestimate our low tolerance for discomfort. To be encouraged to stay with our vulnerability is news that we definitely can use. Sitting meditation is our support for learning how to do this. Sitting meditation, also known as mindfulness-awareness practice, is the foundation of bodhichitta training. It is the home ground of the warrior bodhisattva.

Sitting meditation cultivates loving-kindness and compassion, the relative qualities of bodhichitta. It gives us a way to move closer to our thoughts and emotions and to get in touch with our bodies. It is a method of cultivating unconditional friendliness toward ourselves and for parting the curtain of indifference that distances us from the suffering of others. It is our vehicle for learning to be a truly loving person.

Gradually, through meditation, we begin to notice that there are gaps in our internal dialogue. In the midst of continually talking to ourselves, we experience a pause, as if awakening from a dream. We recognize our capacity to relax with the clarity, the space, the open-ended awareness that already exists in our minds. We experience moments of being right here that feel simple, direct, and uncluttered.

This coming back to the immediacy of our experience is training in unconditional bodhichitta. By simply staying here, we relax more and more into the open dimension of our being. It feels like stepping out of a fantasy and relaxing with the truth.

Yet there is no guarantee that sitting meditation will be of benefit. We can practice for years without it penetrating our hearts and minds. We can use meditation to reinforce our false beliefs: it will protect us from discomfort; it will fix us; it will fulfill our hopes and remove our fears. This happens because we don’t properly understand why we are practicing.

Why do we meditate? This is a question we’d be wise to ask. Why would we even bother to spend time alone with ourselves?

First of all, it is helpful to understand that meditation is not just about feeling good. To think that this is why we meditate is to set ourselves up for failure. We’ll assume we are doing it wrong almost every time we sit down: even the most settled meditator experiences psychological and physical pain. Meditation takes us just as we are, with our confusion and our sanity. This complete acceptance of ourselves as we are is called maitri, a simple, direct relationship with our being…

Continue Reading "Learning to Stay"

Copyright Pema Chodron. All Rights Reserved.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments on today's article! Please scroll down and leave your comments below.

Wishing you a mindful and meditative day!

Soulfully,
Valerie

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“There is no enlightenment outside of daily life.”
― Thich Nhat Hạnh

Good morning! I hope you enjoyed a terrific weekend!  I'm excited to share an insightful article with you today about "mindfulness," by a wonderful author and long-time columnist at SoulfulLiving.com, KD Farris, Ph.D.

KD is a speaker, counselor, and healer. She is also the author of the book, MESHE, HESHE, MISON & ORBIT and has been teaching workshops based on the topic of her book for over twenty years.

I hope you enjoy her article! ♥

"Mindfulness: A Receiving Mind"

By KD Farris, Ph.D.

Mindfulness is a common concept in the practice of yoga and meditation, which are becoming more and more commonplace in contemporary Western life.

But what does the term mindful meditation really mean? Better yet, what does it mean to us in our day-to-day lives?

Think of mindfulness as being full of mind, but without the chattering of extemporaneous thoughts. Our minds are constantly at work – judging, planning, and narrating everything we are exposed to – from the moment we wake until the very instant we fall asleep. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Consider the liberation of an uncluttered mind!

So, what does it mean to have mind awareness, to have awareness of mind, yet not be thinking? To have mind awareness – awareness of mind – is to free ourselves of the never-ending flow of unconscious chatter.

But how do we get there? As in all things, it takes practice.

Your brain is a transmitter. So, if you begin to understand your thinking mind — the judging, planning, narrating voice in your head — as sending information to you, what would it be like for your mind to be receiving information instead?

One of my early spiritual teachers used to say, ‘concentrate to send, relax to receive.’ If you can truly relax, you will usually fall asleep. But if you are mindful within your relaxation, you can give attention — without comment — to your perceptions.

Perceptions are only possible because you are receiving the information. So what would it mean to have a receiving mind? It would mean a mind full of understanding. But, not just any understanding — perception without judgment or criticism. Perception that is accepted, noted, and cared for. Perception that is nurtured and given a good home. Such perception does not need to be corrected or controlled. It simply is.

Therefore, to be truly mindful, or to achieve real mind awareness, is to understand and perceive your thoughts without commentary.

Human beings are naturally judgmental. And our mind’s constant commentary is almost always an extreme evaluation, often unconsciously judging another person superior or inferior upon meeting them, for example. With such extreme assessments, our thinking mind holds a position of polarity. We pit the best against the worst, and we do it even with ourselves; especially with ourselves. We pit what we’ve done, which is not good enough, against what we should have done, which is better.

But if we are mindful of our inner critic, we take note of the judge’s activity without buying the goods, so to speak. We become non-judgmental, accepting of our own thoughts and perceptions.

The thinker is thinking. The judge is judging. The planner is planning. Mindfulness is simply noticing. For every instance we notice, we are not judging. We take note of the judge; we watch the thinker at work; but we are no longer thinking. We have become a witness to the thinking.

As a witness, we are one step removed from the doing. And with this tiny disengagement, we have created vast opportunities for ourselves and our enlightenment. Opportunity for a deeper breath, a longer pause; the chance to look around, taste the air, feel our bodies, laugh at ourselves. We really can stop and smell the roses.

We find the opportunity to question what we’re thinking, what we’re judging, who we are being, within our own minds.

From this place of noticing our thinking, we can experience gentleness. Mindfulness is the gentle, consistent attention upon not only your thoughts but your experiences. Mindfulness is the moment you awaken within…

Continue Reading "Mindfulness: A Receiving Mind"

Copyright KD Farris, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments on KD's article! Please scroll down and leave your comments below.

Wishing you a mindful day!

Soulfully,
Valerie

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"Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way – on purpose,
in the present moment, and without judgement."
—Jon Kabat-Zinn

Good morning and happy Wednesday! I have a terrific article for you this morning by writer Lorane Gordon about mindfulness, called "Take Leave of Your Mind." Enjoy! ♥

"Take Leave of Your Mind"

by Lorane Gordon

In order to be mindful, leave your mind out of it!

What does being mindful really mean? It’s about being aware; aware of everything that is going on within and without. When we’re mindful we experience the color of the sky, the green of the grass. We really see the blossoming of nature and smell the fragrance in the air. We feel the essence of another and see their soul within their eyes. We recognize that we’re part of the life energy that is all around us and within all things. This understanding brings about a feeling of quiet joy, a feeling of reverence, a feeling of peace. This is bliss consciousness, and it can be yours!

Let me explain. Our mind has over 60,000 thoughts a day. Each and every day! Imagine the amount of words it takes to simply form that many thoughts. More than 95% of those thoughts are nothing more than repetition. Think about it. Have you ever noticed that when you’re trying to solve a problem you just keep repeating yourself? In the course of the day we are constantly saying the same things to ourselves, over and over again. When your mind is full of noise you don’t have enough silence to hear what is being said let alone come up with a solution to a problem. In order to be mindful, we have to first quiet the mind.

When your mind becomes quiet you are aware of a deep feeling of peace. Yes, there is peace down there, somewhere under those 60,000 thoughts. When your mind is that busy it’s pretty difficult to come up with the solution for a problem. How about trying to create something? That is, if you even feel like being creative. Imagine the creative urge trying to get through the traffic jam of thoughts in your mind?

Again, once your mind has quieted down, you discover a sense of peace. Now you can hear the messages of your inner self and become aware of your true feelings. Perhaps for the first time in our lives we begin to know who we really are. If, like so many of us, you feel that your life is all right, yet you suspect that something is missing, it’s most likely because you aren’t paying enough attention to yourself to even recognize your own needs. If you don’t know what you need how can you possibly satisfy yourself? Before you can get to this place of knowing yourself, you have to quiet your mind.

There are many ways to quiet our minds, and they all begin with awareness. For example, are you aware of the constant chattering in you head? That non-stop yacking is so much a part of our lives that we don’t even recognize it. It’s like a background noise that annoyed you at first, but then you became accustomed to it. Can you imagine the relief you’ll have once you quiet that down?

So how do you quiet your mind? The first thing to do is develop a relationship with the Observer. The Observer, or as some people refer to it, the Witness, is simply an impartial reporter. That’s it! This means that it doesn’t tell you you’re doing it wrong. It won’t tell you to do something better, or differently. Nor will it tell you not to feel something, or even to feel something else. The Observer will simply tell you what is going on. But, you have to learn to hear this voice. Believe me, that voice is always here; but the mind can be so noisy with the obsessive chatter that most of the time we don’t hear what it has to say.

To start, make a conscious intention to listen to your Observer. You will then begin to hear what you are saying to yourself. Notice how that makes you feel. Recognize how often you project yourself into an imaginary future and see how often you go into the past with feelings of regret or remorse. You will notice how you keep yourself separate from others by judging them…

Continue Reading "Take Leave of Your Mind"

Copyright Lorane Gordon. All Rights Reserved.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments about today's article! Please scroll down and leave your comments below.

And, if you haven’t already done so, be sure to pick up your special package of inspirational goodness exclusively for our Daily Soul Retreat Newsletter Subscribers — a “Soul Retreat Gift Pack” filled with over $300 worth of Ecourses, Ebooks, Audio Workshops and Meditations, donated by our awesome SoulfulLiving.com authors. If you aren’t already subscribed, click here for all the details. If you are already subscribed, watch your Daily Soul Retreats for all the details.

Wishing you a mindful day!

Soulfully,
Valerie

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"The only thing you ever have is now."
—Eckhart Tolle

Good morning and happy Monday! I hope you enjoyed a wonderful weekend! I'm very pleased to be able to offer you an article by one of my favorite authors this morning, Eckhart Tolle. Eckhart is the best-selling author of "The Power of Now," Stillness Speaks, and "A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose." His article, "You Are Not Your Mind," is a wonderful overview of the themes of mindfulness, presence, and enlightenment. It is a very thorough examination of these topics, so I have excerpted my favorite section for you here. I hope you enjoy it! ♥

"You Are Not Your Mind"

by Eckhart Tolle

The good news is that you can free yourself from your mind. This is the only true liberation. You can take the first step right now. Start listening to the voice in your head as often as you can. Pay particular attention to any repetitive thought patterns, those old gramophone records that have been playing in your head perhaps for many years. This is what I mean by "watching the thinker," which is another way of saying: listen to the voice in your head, be there as the witnessing presence.

When you listen to that voice, listen to it impartially. That is to say, do not judge. Do not judge or condemn what you hear, for doing so would mean that the same voice has come in again through the back door. You'll soon realize: there is the voice, and here I am listening to it, watching it. This I am realization, this sense of your own presence, is not a thought. It arises from beyond the mind.

So when you listen to a thought, you are aware not only of the thought but also of yourself as the witness of the thought. A new dimension of consciousness has come in. As you listen to the thought, you feel a conscious presence – your deeper self – behind or underneath the thought, as it were. The thought then loses its power over you and quickly subsides, because you are no longer energizing the mind through identification with it. This is the beginning of the end of involuntary and compulsive thinking.When a thought subsides, you experience a discontinuity in the mental stream – a gap of "no-mind." At first, the gaps will be short, a few seconds perhaps, but gradually they will become longer. When these gaps occur, you feel a certain stillness and peace inside you. This is the beginning of your natural state of felt oneness with Being, which is usually obscured by the mind. With practice, the sense of stillness and peace will deepen. In fact, there is no end to its depth. You will also feel a subtle emanation of joy arising from deep within: the joy of Being.

It is not a trancelike state. Not at all. There is no loss of consciousness here. The opposite is the case. If the price of peace were a lowering of your consciousness, and the price of stillness a lack of vitality and alertness, then they would not be worth having. In this state of inner connectedness, you are much more alert, more awake than in the mind-identified state. You are fully present. It also raises the vibrational frequency of the energy field that gives life to the physical body.

As you go more deeply into this realm of no-mind, as it is sometimes called in the East, you realize the state of pure consciousness. In that state, you feel your own presence with such intensity and such joy that all thinking, all emotions, your physical body, as well as the whole external world become relatively insignificant in comparison to it. And yet this is not a selfish but a selfless state. It takes you beyond what you previously thought of as "your self." That presence is essentially you and at the same time inconceivably greater than you. What I am trying to convey here may sound paradoxical or even contradictory, but there is no other way that I can express it.

Instead of "watching the thinker," you can also create a gap in the mind stream simply by directing the focus of your attention into the Now. Just become intensely conscious of the present moment. This is a deeply satisfying thing to do. In this way, you draw consciousness away from mind activity and create a gap of no-mind in which you are highly alert and aware but not thinking. This is the essence of meditation. In your everyday life, you can practice this by taking any routine activity that normally is only a means to an end and giving it your fullest attention, so that it becomes an end in itself. For example, every time you walk up and down the stairs in your house or place of work, pay close attention to every step, every movement, even your breathing. Be totally present. Or when you wash your hands, pay attention to all the sense perceptions associated with the activity: the sound and feel of the water, the movement of your hands, the scent of the soap, and so on. Or when you get into your car, after you close the door, pause for a few seconds and observe the flow of your breath. Become aware of a silent but powerful sense of presence. There is one certain criterion by which you can measure your success in this practice: the degree of peace that you feel within.

So the single most vital step on your journey toward enlightenment is this: learn to disidentify from your mind. Every time you create a gap in the stream of mind, the light of your consciousness grows stronger. One day you may catch yourself smiling at the voice in your head, as you would smile at the antics of a child. This means that you no longer take the content of your mind all that seriously, as your sense of self does not depend on it…

Continue Reading "You Are Not Your Mind"

Copyright Eckhart Tolle. All Rights Reserved.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments about today's article! Please scroll down and leave your comments below.

And, if you haven’t already done so, be sure to pick up your special package of inspirational goodness exclusively for our Daily Soul Retreat Newsletter Subscribers — a “Soul Retreat Gift Pack” filled with over $300 worth of Ecourses, Ebooks, Audio Workshops and Meditations, donated by our awesome SoulfulLiving.com authors. If you aren’t already subscribed, click here for all the details. If you are already subscribed, watch your Daily Soul Retreats for all the details.

Wishing you a beautiful and mindful day!

Soulfully,
Valerie

Share the Inspiration with Your Friends…

"If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change."
—Buddha

Good morning and happy April! I'm delighted to announce our theme for the month of April. We will be looking at the topic of "Mindfulness" — one of my favorite subjects!! Today, I have a wonderful short essay for you on "mindfulness" by author Victoria Moran.

I was so inspired by Victoria's article that I've created a Visual Inspiration for you today, as well. This is one of my favorite quotes by Buddha. I love its message of being so fully present and mindful in the moment that we are able to bear witness to everyday miracles, such as the incredible beauty and miraculousness of a single flower. To be so present that we can truly see the flower– the life in it — and to become one with it — to become awake to life, in present moment awareness. Aah, bliss.

Enjoy!  ♥

"Walk the Path of Mindfulness"

by Victoria Moran

To be mindful is to pay life such thorough attention that you glimpse the heartwarming beauty of all that is. With mindfulness, you don’t just do what you’re doing: you become what you’re doing. And when one task or conversation is finished, you move on to the next with the same attentiveness, the same conviction.

A mindful person is a blessing to everybody else because he or she is fully present. So often the person we’re talking with on the phone is also writing an e-mail or scrambling an egg. This doubling up is how we get things done. But when you focus on someone to the exclusion of everything else, you give something rare and eloquent.

We all want to live long and well, and yet an unwillingness to be fully aware takes hours, days and years from our lives. You don’t need to lose another minute. And you won’t, as long as you’re willing to be completely aware of this one. Just pay attention. Be in the experience without judging it or naming it. Be in it as you’d be in the water if you dove into a pool.

If non-stop mindfulness, like St. Paul’s “Pray without ceasing,” is too much, do your best to be mindful at least once every day. That’s all. Once a day, give another person your undivided attention. Once a day, look at a flower and see the petals and the leaves, its strength and delicacy. Once a day, focus on the heat from the sidewalk, the breeze from the fan, the wetness of a glass of water or a shower or a swim. When you do this, you learn to be in life instead of just passing through. This slows it down and fleshes it out. It makes you a blessing, yes, but is also makes you blessed.

Copyright Victoria Moran. All Rights Reserved.

Victoria Moran is an author, coach, and motivational speaker. Her best-selling books include her latest, Main Street Vegan, her classic Creating a Charmed Life; its sequel Living a Charmed Life: Your Guide to Finding Magic in Every Moment of Every Day; and the newly revised and updated classic, The Love-Powered Diet: Eating for Freedom, Health, and Joy. Victoria lives in New York City. please visit her site, MainStreetVegan.net

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments about today's article! Please scroll down and leave your comments below.

And, if you haven’t already done so, be sure to pick up your special package of inspirational goodness exclusively for our Daily Soul Retreat Newsletter Subscribers — a “Soul Retreat Gift Pack” filled with over $300 worth of Ecourses, Ebooks, Audio Workshops and Meditations, donated by our awesome SoulfulLiving.com authors. If you aren’t already subscribed, click here for all the details. If you are already subscribed, watch your Daily Soul Retreats for all the details.

Wishing you a wonderfully mindful day!

Soulfully,
Valerie

Share the Inspiration with Your Friends…