I did not even realise that "mindfulness" is a whole practise on its own; of being fully present and also connected with meditation. And it is not exactly what I am thinking of in terms of being mindful, although some of the principles sounds very profound and life-changing.
I don't meditate often, but I do feel much better if I allow myself a few minutes in a day just to spend time with God, reflect and relax. With two busy boys, this obviously does not happen very often. So maybe I will focus on that a bit further on in the next few weeks.
For now, I just want to think a bit about what mindfulness means to me. My recent trip to South Africa made me think a lot. We had a great time with family and friends, I got super-tired as usual- being in survival mode for about a month, we saw beautiful places, tasted wonderful food and wines. But then we also had some intense conversations. I was questioned and debated about a lot of things that I do and the way I see things. I did not often have all the answers or the right arguments. I tend to do things because it feels right and natural to me and not always because I have done tons of research on a specific topics. Certain things just seem obvious though! The world is overflowing with plastic; plastic in the forests, plastic in the ocean, plastic in my house and in my garbage daily. We used to not think about it, now we are becoming more aware of it and naturally I know I need to reduce my use of plastic. I am trying to be more mindful of the way I do things, what I buy, our wastage etc. The same goes for eating less meat. I am not saying that you need to become a vegetarian and I am definitely not saying that I will become one soon, but I can understand that the way things are done to animals because of mass production etc does not feel right to me. I think I need to be mindful of that and because I know the benefits of plant-based diets and the fact that you can get a lot of good proteins from other food groups, I am very happy for our family to eat 2 to 3 vegetarian or even vegan meals a week. And one of the last things and this is possibly the biggest thing in my mind: is to be mindful of people that are different than you. To try to understand things from their perspective. To be aware of cultural differences etc, but never let it be used to classify people or to form stereotypes or discriminate against them in any way. The list for this is long: race, religion, age, sexual orientation, gender etc...
Coming back to what mindfulness means to me; I want to be more mindful of different things. Even though I do think about some of these things I mentioned above, I am still too often not aware of things, or I am aware, but still choose not to make big differences in lifestyle yet or at other times maybe jump too quickly on the bandwagon. In order to think about things and be more aware about things, (even the things that seem so natural and right to me), I want to know what I am talking about and understand even more the impact certain actions have.
This includes some of the following practical examples:
- being mindful that the grumpy person behind the till at the local grocery store possibly has a reason for being so grumpy
- being mindful that other people does not always feel the same as me about things and that although I still need to speak my mind when I think they are wrong, I also need to accept it, let them grow at their own pace and not let it affect me
- being mindful that my children sees the way we do things and that this teaches them a lot about life
- being mindful that my 4 year old and my 1 year old cannot think the way I do and I need to really try to sometimes think the way they do in order to teach them better
- being mindful about what is good for my body and what is not and giving myself time to listen to my body
- being mindful of the small changes that I can make that can make a difference for our planet or the people around me
So look around you. Be aware of the impact of your actions, whether big or small. Pay attention. Seek answers. Give a little bit of yourself. Read things that are out of your comfort zone. Stop making excuses. Think! Reason! And above all... Love.
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