Often people want to know what, exactly, is that feeling of mindfulness. They want to know if they are doing it right. The answer is to just be, to find a quiet place indoors or outdoors, to quiet your mind, to take time by not thinking about time, by not thinking about anything. Let your mind and yourself just be. Following is an example of mindfulness, which is just one of many examples, from my book, Happy Tales:
“Distant foghorns’ music creates a foreboding, and yet a mysterious embracing aura, drawing me in. I want to get on with my daily routine of feeding cats and walking the dog and doing laundry, but the moment of complete silence holds me, and I surrender, staying motionless, listening, and watching. A seagull flies by with a clam; ducks fly, land, and dive. There is no sound. No calls from ducks or loon. A fishing boat, with two rods trailing off the aft, sits motionless, far out, near the misty horizon. To have this moment and choose to sit, watch, and escape life by surrendering into it is life-changing.
I choose to heed this message from nature. I have always known what I wanted and loved—life in and among nature—but I chose the worldly pursuits of big business. Now, today, I choose nature; I choose answering the innate call of my soul—the silence, the peace, the strength answering to the One, the inner voice. At peace, I put no pressure on myself, just renovating old secret, pocket rock gardens in my landscape project. No rush, no hurry—walk the dog, enjoy the beauty of autumn’s colors and evolution toward winter. Follow a dream of moving farther into nature—fewer cars, fewer people, a feeling of finally evolving, transcending, a conscious choice of direction toward new horizons. I found serenity once, living on a pond with a hill and woods as I painted my artist’s canvas with goldenrod and sunshine yellows—never coming close to the splendor of God’s nature, but walking in it, seeing it, feeling it.
King exhales a big sigh, and I am drawn back to an awareness of my chores and the time it will take to do them.”
Lessons learned:
- There is no right or wrong in being mindful.
- Mindfulness is just taking a moment to relax and let your mind go. Let it wander on your surroundings and enjoy that moment—get lost in the moment, and let that moment extend as you escape and lose track of time.
- You will find, in the simplicity of just being, peace and quiet. And when that quiet becomes profound, you will be changed.
- Mindfulness is called practice. By practicing mindfulness, you escape deeper and deeper into knowledge. By using knowledge, we gain wisdom.
Peacefulness in Just Being
