Be Mindful

My classes today were taught on mindfulness.....awareness of the breathe, the sensations of movement in the body, being in the present.  It seems with each passing day, we are encouraged to multi-task.....do more, do it fast,  do as much as possible at one time.  And while we are all doing many things at once,  we are lost in our pasts, or trapped in the fear of tomorrow......whatever happened to now?

We really are like hamsters in our cages, spinning our wheels fast as we can, and going nowhere.
Have we lost the ability to do one thing at a time?  Can we do our best, and not necessarily our fastest?  Do we remember what it is like to breathe, one breath at a time? To listen to our bodies, and recognize real and honest sensations, such as hunger, sadness, joy.

Mindfulness, yes we learn from our pasts, but we also drag them around like chains or maybe even giant teddy bears.  And there is that big scary future.......we imagine all sorts of scary things and events that might happen there. So what happens to now, the present?  The present has become sorta like Thanksgiving..... squeezed in between Halloween and Christmas, getting less important all the time.

Mindfulness, what is taking place right now.....your breath, what sounds do you hear, what do you smell, what do you feel?  Just take a few minutes, look around.....what do you see?  Take a breathe, see how it feels and sounds to breathe.  What do you hear, what do you smell?  Now, notice sensations in your body.....aches, pains, tightness, any joy, contentment, or peace, hunger, thirst?

Try to take just five minutes each day.....and be mindful.  Start with your breath, how it feels, how it sounds, notice sounds, smells, taste, sights, don't think about what happened yesterday or last week, and don't worry about tomorrow.....five minutes in the now, in the present......be mindful.