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It doesn’t take much to look at life and pick out the negative; the grotesque. Pain, suffering, death and despair don’t lurk in the shadows, no, they hover near our faces, sit down at our dinner table and pad through our hallways as if they belong. With negativity at such an all time high it doesn’t take a keen eye to focus on the dreary, the despondent wallowing of our lives. It is the lazy soul who wallows and rolls in the mire of our condition.
It takes a much more controlled and aware, might I say mindful one to find the streak of hope, the burst of sunshine, the one, minute inkling of something better. It’s not that the good isn’t present, it’s only whether or not we have trained our sight to focus like a laser onto the good.
Mindfulness is a new topic to me–a new practice. Before you run for the hills, let me rephrase that to read living in the moment. Recently at a conference I mentioned mindfulness by encouraging my audience to close their eyes and consciously become aware of their surroundings–of the chair beneath them, of their feet on the semi-plush carpet.
The same practice can enable us to appreciate our lives even more. Does this examination of the good drown out the bad? Does it negate the injustice? By no means, but it does supply hope in an ever-wanting world.
So here’s to the one day reprieve in between the apocalypse of the stomach bug in a house of four kids. Here’s to short runs and hot showers and three pages read while the children aren’t waging the next world war between themselves. Here’s to the silver lining, the plush carpet, the heated car, and the warm blanket at night….
Have you ever practiced mindfulness? How has it helped you?
Today be mindful of your surroundings. Take note of the floor under your feet, the cold wind biting at your cheeks, the sloppy toddler’s kiss. The memory will only add to the reservoir of experience from which to draw when you are writing.
Hoping you have a lovely weekend,
Kristina
Kristina lives around the corner from her grandparents in the same small town in which she grew up. When she isn’t reading young adult fiction or folding the endless piles of laundry you can find her blogging at redefining awesome.
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