Mind Full or Mindful?

When is the last time you took a minute to just breathe?

Yes, I know. We breathe every second of the day. It’s a necessity to life. It’s a requirement to living. It happens thoughtlessly, usually going unnoticed altogether.

It happens mindlessly.

We walk through life with our minds usually on everything but the present moment in which we are living. Our minds running through our piling to-do list, worrying about what we are going to have for dinner, stressed because we are chasing that promotion, regretting that expensive purchase we made yesterday, reliving the painful memories of last year’s Christmas party, nervous about the results of our medical tests, wondering if the dog ate the box of donuts accidentally left on the kitchen counter this morning…

The list is never-ending.

Where does that leave us? Disconnected. From our lives, our environments, our loved ones, our bodies, our minds… disconnected from ourselves. When our minds are so utterly distracted, we fail to notice what is happening in the now. We miss things like the sun peaking through the clouds, the feeling of warmth seeping onto our skin, the emotions that arise in our bodies while we soak in the warmth and sunshine…

We fail to notice our breath.

Close your eyes (if it feels okay) and bring your attention to your breath. Take three big, controlled breaths with seven seconds to inhale and seven seconds to exhale each one.  One breath… two… and then three. Then open your eyes, and notice the world around you. Notice how your body feels today. Notice what it is like to experience this moment you are living in right now.

Notice your breath.

Now is the only moment we are actually living in. Live it mindfully.

Still have questions about mindfulness? Check back next week as I unpack what mindfulness actually is, give it a working definition, and bring this word that we hear so often (but may not truly understand) to life