April 17, 2015

Using Mindfulness to Move Past Negativity.

0 Boost Score Taylor Cropper (1,510,185)

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Mindfulness. Mindfulness. More Mindfulness.

I feel like “mindfulness” can be a very vague term, but set the intention to express what it means to me. It’s a mental superfood: it can heal any negative situation, no matter how big or small.

To be mindful is to be at peace, watching life unfold. We may not be able to see everything as it is, but I don’t think we’re supposed to. When we’re doing a good job at being mindful we are living in the moment, are buzzing, and are able to have our own beautiful, flowy interpretation of this world without the clogged up mind games that we practice when we are acting solely from the unconscious.

So how do we even start? Just the intention to be mindful will give us the opportunity to give us what we need to start.

Don’t take it too seriously and have fun with it!

Breathe.

We must start with our most accessible resource: the breath. I know it doesn’t sound too exciting, but if we can slow down the breath, it’s like we slow down time. My mentor Lauren Horn says in her classes, “You set the pace of your life.”

Enrich the breath, enrich your life. Breathe in nourishment. How? Silently say on the next breath, “I breathe in nourishment!” Breathe in love. Magic. Peace. Protection. Love again. Fulfillment.

Just paying attention to this breath and feeding little bits and pieces of love and blessings into it projects it out into our reality. I’m not saying that everything is going to turn into rainbows and butterflies (although it will be apart of it), but I am saying that it is a way more sane way to dealing with the “what-should-I-do-nexts” and “whys” than bringing that mind in charge.

Intentions and Self-Affirmations.

I’ve gone intention and self-affirmation insane. This is also an easy one to incorporate into our lives. Deepak Chopra says in his book, The Seven Spiritual Laws Of Success, “You do not need to justify; simply declare your intent to yourself, and you will experience fulfillment, delight, joy, freedom, and autonomy in every moment of your life.”

Like I said before: just an intention can get everything rolling.

Five intentions get five things rolling. One hundred intentions come before we know it. Pretty soon, we slowly started calling all the shots, but are so in the flow that we don’t care about having control of the shots. It’s an odd sensation, but it’s filling and it makes us feel complete.

Inspiration.

Another teacher of mine, David Miller says, “What would matter to you if no one told you what mattered? What would matter if there were no fears or guilt?”

That is a powerful thing to reflect on. I think the answers to those questions bring inspiration. When we become inspired, we become like stardust: a bright sparkly sparkler of love. It affects our bodies, it affects our minds, and it makes us believe that everything is connected, because that’s how beautiful life is looking. It turns our annoyances into clues and opportunities.

What will what ignites our sparkly souls and create a domino effect of just good old fashioned goodness? Get creative! Go paint that picture to the world. Who cares if it’s not perfect? It’s the searching and the adventure into ourselves that turns the journey into bliss.

Every morning, we must say, “Today is blessed,” and then interact with that blessing until it makes us whole.

Commitment.

This word frightens me. However, I know that I need it in my life. I feel like we should change the word, “commitment.” Let’s make it a “love donation.”

I think commitment gets a bad rap because we force ourselves to do things that really don’t serve us and get it confused with a healthy love donation. We have to decide for ourselves what a healthy love donation is. I think anything that lights us up is adding to our love donation.

Something that has a light at the end of the tunnel that actually means something to us: our light. Love donations could include: meditating everyday even if it’s for three minutes a day, remembering to breathe throughout the day, taking out time once a week to do something that makes us happy, making a promise to go outside everyday (even if it’s just to get a couple moments of fresh air), making ourselves dinner once a week, taking time out to dance, practicing contentment, letting ourselves off the hook every day and practicing non-judgment.