Mindfulness is to not judging ourselves, it is about being compassionate to our own journey of paying attention. Mindfulness is the ability to be aware of our actions and responses to the world. Mindfulness is being gentle and kind, and fierce with compassion yet unwavering at times. Mindfulness is remembering who you are in your heart, and to hold tight when others try to consume you with their words or ideals. Mindfulness is choosing how you are going to respond to any given situation throughout each day. Mindfulness is choosing when to respond with kindness, assertiveness, or fierceness.
It is knowing that everyone is on their own path, and that you choosing to be mindful in no way denotes that others should respond that way. It’s about understanding that each and everyday you will be met with small and big challenges. Yet in each and every moment you can choose how to respond. Just because you choose to respond with fierce boundary setting in one encounter does not mean that the next moment you have to respond the same way. You can choose to move from kindness and gentleness.
It’s letting go of judging ourselves and others when we/they did not respond in the best way. It is an understanding that it’s a daily practice. That just because someone is trying to force us into their imagined outcome, in no way means we must respond that way. It also means that when we see something one way it does not mean it is the right direction that someone else should follow.
Being mindful does not mean you have all the answers.
Mindfulness is letting go. It is also the act of sticking with it when we need to. It’s a balance of holding on and sometimes letting go. It can be holding onto the fight, but not the outcome.
Mindfulness is breathing in conscious thoughts and reactions throughout each and every day. It is a life long practice. The more we do it, we get better at watching ourselves. But we are not better for being mindful, and in no way do we get better at creating the outcomes we wont from other people. We do however get better at creating better outcomes because we no longer expect certainty. We begin to understand that life is constant balancing act of our desires vs the desires of everyone else.
It is being passionately gentle and fiercely aware. It is balancing primitive ingrained responses with a heavy dose of observation.
Will you choose to be observant today? Take it one moment at a time, and you will find something arise in you that is worth paying attention to.
with love
Noelle