M I N D F U L N E S S

. . .talk about a buzz word
that may not be always completely
m i n d e d

What Mindfulness Actually Means

A couple of journalists, Peechaya Burroughs for TIMEBY CATHERINE CUELLO-FUENTE  pull back the
MINDFUL Curtain
and give us some glimpse of what this
M I N D F U L N E S S
might be all about:

There’s a lot of talk about mindfulness lately, but what does it actually mean? “Mindfulness” is a translation of the Buddhist concept of sati. Sati, which Buddhists consider the first of seven factors of enlightenment, means, “memory of the present,” and that’s exactly it:
Mindfulness means to be present.

Mindfulness means to slow down, to be kind, to look at someone and not through someone. To accept that life has its ups and downs but that, in the end, the downs pass like clouds in the sky. It’s realizing that, even though it may be easier to run than to walk, it is in stillness or slowness that you start to find beauty around you and in everything that you do.

Mindfulness helps you enjoy the day-to-day and teaches you that there is no better place to be than where you are right now. You learn to see things that are unpleasant as temporary or as tiny chapters in the larger story that is your life. Our culture makes us believe that only big life events—birthdays, a promotion, graduation, New Year’s Eve—are worth celebrating. As a result, we end up underappreciating the things that we do every day.

I see people all the time who do not realize their worth. They complain because they’re so focused on what they are looking forward to that they cannot be mindful and enjoy what is in front of them. And with the dying, it sometimes can be magnified to make it so much worse or it focuses them like they’ve never been before in their lives and they see with a clarity no corrective lenses could ever promise. Unfortunately, as it usually happens, I had to hit rock bottom to learn this myself. . .We all do and maybe the secret is:
HIT THE BOTTOM FAST
or
RAISE THE FLOOR
so the Fall
is more like a step
than an abyss. . .

Have you ever had those definable moments when you utterly feel:
I wasn’t fulfilled,
I wasn’t challenged or 
I wasn’t enlightened. . . ?

THE ANSWER?
Well. . .
LOOK WITHIN
(except there’s no compass, there’s no GPS, no real manual for that journey)

M I N D F U L N E S S
is well. . .
m i n d f u l
and there are many ways to
attain it
but none
more important than
Y O U R
W A Y

M I N D F U L N E S S

It’s not about the
L a y e r s
so much as knowing which
o n e
you occupy
N O W

M I N D
k i n d. . .
why stand in front of a mirror
catching your reflection
when you can see yourself
from the inside
in a way that can’t be reflected
ONLY REFLECTIVE
?

I have a mind to. . .
be more mindful,
Y O U ?