Our country is having a love affair with mindfulness. It’s the new thing. The magic pill of our current time. And yet with all this talk about mindfulness, do we really find ourselves living more mindfully?

“…Hokusai says look carefully.

He says pay attention, notice.

He says keep looking, stay curious.

He says there is no end to seeing…”

What is mindfulness meditation?

We all hold tension in our bodies and generally do a great job “maintaining our cool” throughout the day. Those daily tensions can build up though, and if not given some avenues for release can cause chronic stress and tension leading to physical and emotional health issues.

Elongating the out-breath helps to activate your parasympathetic nervous system, your calming system. This is the “Rest and Digest” part of your nervous system that helps you feel relaxed, restore after a period of action or stress, and repair/heal your physical body.

If you have a sense that your ability to say no has been taken “off-line” you may need more than a shift in perspective and practice to regain your NO.

In order to truly be of service to the WHOLE we must also be caring and nurturing ourselves so that we are sustainable and healthy resources. We must tend our own garden and then share from it’s healthy ground versus allowing our internal crops to be trampled and picked over without replenishment .

We live in a culture that worships thoughts, bows down to thoughts as truth…and yet, if we slow down and watch our thoughts even briefly, we can start to see just how crazy the mind can be. It was a fundamental shift for me when I learned that you can watch your thoughts without believing each one.