"Mindfulness"

"Mindfulness is the practice whereby a person is intentionally aware of his or her thoughts and actions in the present moment, non-judgmentally. The practice of bringing your attention and focus back to the present moment, primarily through breathing and awareness."

In "The Miracle of Mindfulness," Thich Nhat Hahn - a well-known Buddhist monk and poet - teaches us about the importance of being mindful in our lives. In this day and age, with our busy-ness and our constant multitasking, we are truly not aware of our surroundings most of the time. We are "in another world," but not in the present one. We have too many things in our minds and too many things to do; so we don't even pay attention to what we are doing in our lives, at times; and to what is really important. We learn to "tune out" our parents, our friends, our teachers, our children (if we are parents), our co-workers, our classmates, and whatever is going on around us. It's kind of scary, isn't it? We are disconnected with OUR world... (our spiritual and our physical world).

I see this practice of "disconnection" all around me, where I work, at home, and wherever I go. It's like we have to make a great effort to try to "connect" with others, to attract attention; because they are in that hectic and constant world of rushing - of doing and thinking too many things at once. I'm guilty of this sometimes too - I admit it! It's hard to find the time to SLOW DOWN and truly pay attention to what's going on at the present moment.

Sometimes the world is very loud too: the noise of cars, TV, cell phones, people talking very loudly, all kinds of modern gadgets, etc. They intrude in our world and it's even hard to pay attention to our own thoughts and ideas - to get inspired.

We all have a lot to learn; but my advice today is: let's try to take the time, at least several times a day, to be mindful of our moments; of what we are doing; of the people around us; of a beautiful day; of our feelings; of our breath. We are alive, and yet, we live like zombies at times. Let's practice "connection" instead of "disconnection."

Let's learn to focus and take some deep breaths once in a while; let's "take the time to smell the roses," like they say. Time to appreciate our friends, our family, our pets, nature, music and most importantly... God, our source. Life shouldn't be a RACE - the race to get somewhere (we don't even know where) first! We can take our time - it's O.K. to take our time...