Being Mindful

Sometimes we tend to have "knee jerk" reactions to situations that cause us stress, anxiety or pain. We say things that we regret or perform actions that make us appear unstable in our emotions. Instead of stopping, taking a deep breath and attempting to understand the situation, we strive to first be understood. Can you relate to this? And if so, can you remember how differently the situation unfolded when you chose to attempt to understand?

Being mindful means that we take in information, allow it to settle into our system, "chew on it," if need be, and then and only then, decide how to react. Reactions can be based in love or fear. If we choose to react in fear, then we are making choices from a "lower level" in our system (ie the gut) and will most likely experience a negative outcome. This can produce feelings of hate, anger, resentment, or shame. If we choose to react in love, we are are using "higher level" (ie heart and soul) thinking and will experience more positive results, such as gratitude, peace and true understanding. Please realize, we may still experience pain, but we move through it much differently.

There are times when we need to react from the gut. We may need quick reactions to help someone in harm's way or remove ourselves from a potentially dangerous situation.

We can be thankful for these quick, adrenaline based reactions during these moments. However, most situations do not call for the adrenaline burst and are simply begging for contemplation.

To move from the "gut" to the "heart" and ultimately to "mindful/soulful" thinking takes courage, dedication and a desire to live differently from the common world.

What if more people decided to learn about being mindful and began to choose higher level living? Do you think that we would laugh more, show more compassion and empathy, choose to understand before wanting to be understood or simply feel more peace, love and joy?

Do you believe that more couples would choose to stay together, more children would learn to listen and be grateful rather than react and feel entitled or more people would feel accepted for being who they were born to be?

Maybe we would learn to just "get along" and then pass that on and on until the world caught on! Maybe we could affect our government and even help to irradicate war!

Take a moment and imagine a world of mindful beings who choose love over fear and seek to understand rather than to be understood.....ahhhhh!

Pick me, please! This is a world in which I would choose to live :)

Want to join me?

In peace, Dr Lorri