The Art of Mindfulness

What do you hear as you read this? What environment are you in? Is it peaceful, quiet and tranquil? Or is it noisy, distractive and interruptive?
Take yourself out of your surroundings for now and tune into your thoughts…

• What do you hear?
• What do you notice?
• What surrounds you?
• What is inside your thoughts?

Tune in… stop, listen and feel only what is around you in this present moment. Close your eyes and come back to reading in 30 seconds. Don't count it down, don't time yourself… just zone out, listen and be in this present moment only.

Welcome back.

• Mindfulness is the practice of being aware and awake to the moment you are in right now at this point of time.
• When was the last time you ever just sat and listened?
• Better yet, when was the last time you took just 5 minutes out of your day to listen, to hear and to interpret?
• When was the last time you told yourself how grateful you are for what you have?

The sad reality is that we live in a society that is constantly busy. BUSY BUSY BUSY. I hate that word! All too often we blame being busy for stopping us from doing the things we love, the things that actually have a positive effect on our mood, our relationships and our outlook on life. We stop living in the now, we forget the present and instead focus on the things we have to get done in the next 30 seconds, 30minutes and 30 hours.

• Being busy is not an achievement but instead a reflection on your priorities in life.
• Stop being busy and start being efficient!

Now you're probably wondering how being busy relates to mindfulness and I understand it may be a little confusing, however, if you take a step back and think about it, being busy is the #1 excuse for "not having enough time." The fact of the matter is, we all have the same time each day. None of us are any different in the time we have each day, but we are certainly very different in how we choose to use our time.

So again I ask... when was the last time you sat down, tuned out, turned off all the white noise in your life and just appreciated what you have? Are you genuinely so busy that you can't give yourself even 5 minutes just to say, "hey how are you going?" or "how do you feel, what makes you happy?".

The truth is…You're not that special and you're not that important!

What are you grateful for?
What are you happy about?
What can you improve on and what will you do to achieve this TODAY?

Practising mindfulness isn't about some voodoo spiritual ritual, it's more than that. It is about being able to take just 5 minutes a day to be in the now.

When was the last time you just stopped and listened?

The answer is too long ago!

So I challenge you, take 5 minutes tomorrow and practice mindfulness. Instead of rolling out of bed and getting straight into the monotonous daily routine so many fall victim to, take 5 minutes to just stop, listen, learn from your thoughts. Appreciate being present in that moment.

• Think about what you are grateful for…
• Think about what you can improve on…
• Think about how lucky you are to be you…

This is a moment of reflection, a moment to be positive but above all a moment to be present.

Do this for just a week and see how efficient you become. I know that whenever I do this my whole life and how it's organised changes for the better.

Stop letting busy be an excuse and start living in the moment. Mindfulness is powerful, embrace it.