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Walk
the Path of Mindfulness
by Victoria Moran |
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To be mindful is to pay life such
thorough attention that you glimpse the heartwarming
beauty of all that is. With mindfulness, you don’t just
do what you’re doing: you become what you’re doing. And
when one task or conversation is finished, you move on
to the next with the same attentiveness, the same
conviction.
A mindful
person is a blessing to everybody else because he or she
is fully present. So often the person we’re talking with
on the phone is also writing an e-mail or scrambling an
egg. This doubling up is how we get things done. But
when you focus on someone to the exclusion of everything
else, you give something rare and eloquent.
We all want
to live long and well, and yet an unwillingness to be
fully aware takes hours, days and years from our lives.
You don’t need to lose another minute. And you won’t, as
long as you’re willing to be completely aware of this
one. Just pay attention. Be in the experience without
judging it or naming it. Be in it as you’d be in the
water if you dove into a pool.
If non-stop
mindfulness, like St. Paul’s “Pray without ceasing,” is
too much, do your best to be mindful at least once every
day. That’s all. Once a day, give another person your
undivided attention. Once a day, look at a flower and
see the petals and the leaves, its strength and
delicacy. Once a day, focus on the heat from the
sidewalk, the breeze from the fan, the wetness of a
glass of water or a shower or a swim. When you do this,
you learn to be in life instead of just passing through.
This slows it down and fleshes it out. It makes you a
blessing, yes, but is also makes you blessed.
© Copyright 2009 Victoria Moran. All Rights Reserved.
Victoria Moran is the author of ten books, including the classic Creating a Charmed Life; its April 2009 sequel Living a Charmed Life: Your Guide to Finding Magic in Every Moment of Every Day; and the newly revised and updated classic, The Love-Powered Diet: Eating for Freedom, Health, and Joy. Victoria hosts a “A Charmed Life” on HealthyLife.net radio. She lives in New York City. please visit her site,
www.victoriamoran.com
and her daily blog on Beliefnet.com is
http://blog.beliefnet.com/yourcharmedlife.
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