Mindfulness, to me…
Mindfulness, to me, is simply caring.
By caring about how we think, live, and Be in the world, I think we feel better inside and help others be themselves and feel better.
I think mindfulness is also a consideration for the deepness of life. I am typing these words that someone before me made up from letters and meanings. The computer I work with and table I sit at were made by someone, somewhere from materials that come from our planet. I have a family, neighbors, and Ancestors that are part of an incredibly diverse, complicated, beautiful, and sometimes terrible civilization. We live on a planet made of different kinds of lifeforms, minerals, energies, and symbiotic relationships that spins among multitudes of other planets and stars in an infinite expanse of Creation.
Mindfulness begins when I realize that I am breathing and thinking and living and loving, or not, and how it is going. Mindfulness is when I care for my neighbor, child, or friend. Mindfulness is how I talk to myself when I think about these things and how I approach the moments of my life.
Mindfulness is reading between the lines, knowing of the nuance and possibility in that space.
I think mindfulness is the simplest way of approaching this world. It considers the value of everyone, everything, and every action. You are valuable. The planet is valuable. Thinking about yourself including caring for your mind, body, and spirit is valuable. Being strong and healthy in all three of those areas is valuable. Affirmations and messages of mindful, loving thoughts are valuable. Intentional, mindful actions are valuable.
We will have ups and downs in our minds and hearts but mindfulness helps us to see that this is temporary and we will get through the low spots. For instance, if it is raining it is only a matter of time until the clouds pass and the sun will shine again! We can be mindful about everything. I think kindness and general respect for others and the environment are simple byproducts of mindfulness. We can solve big problems and ease the pain of much of the world if we engage mindfulness across our civilization.
In my experience, mindfulness is a kind of common sense way of being, the way our mothers and fathers may have tried to teach us. Be kind and considerate of others. Love animals and nature, go play in the plants and trees. Thanks Moms and Dads, Aunties, Grandmas and Grandpas. Thank you to all our Ancestors who lived so that we may be here now to mindfully make good global decisions and fill all our lives with love.
I realize that some people may not have relatives who were kind or adults who demonstrated kindness or mindfulness in their lives. Perhaps you might think of anyone who you felt has truly cared for you and aim to copy that? Perhaps you are the one who will break the cycle and bring mindfulness to your life and the world around you?
I think we are all the ones we have been waiting for.
We can be mindful in our self perspective.
We can approach our life and the world with mindful, positive intention.
We can live mindfully with our planet Earth.
We can build and create and play with mindfulness in our heads and hearts.
We can help other people be mindful and let them help us be mindful too.
Be the one to be your best, mindful self and may all of our wellbeing be better for it.
Thanks for reading!
I am mindful in my appreciation of You.
What is mindfulness to You?
—–
I am mindfully grateful for you, Reader.
I am also grateful for the North St. Louis Mindfulness Project, and St. Louis Artist De’joneiro Jones. The mindful art poster and writing prompt shown here is one of the new mindfulness offerings from the project and features a mindful selection from a painting by Mr. Jones.
Great thanks to the Neighborhood Leadership Academy at University of Missouri St. Louis for their generous grant funding of this recent NSTLP activity. Many thanks also to Civic Arts Development Corporation, Hyde Park Atelier of the Arts & Sciences, Dail Chambers, and Mark Pappas for their mindful contributions to our world.
