Recently I returned to Rome, the eternal city, after 20 years. My memories from that time are some of the happiest of my life. I was young and went to Rome to volunteer to help kids in an underprivileged area. It was an adventure to say the least and I was full of awe at a city that was soaked in beauty and history. Twenty years later I am still struck by the abundance of what the city and its people have to offer. Revisiting places.
This week, if you can, revisit a place that connects you to a time in your life when you felt truly alive and connected and happy. I know it may not be possible to actually go there but closing your eyes and allowing your imagination to return to that place in your mind is the next best thing. Use all of your senses to recall the colours, aromas, sounds and tastes of that place and time. When you have reconnected into that feeling, open your eyes and bring the feeling of joy and freedom with you as you go about the business of living.
The secret of mindfulness in 5 sentences:
- The most important moment in your life is NOW.
- The most important person is the one you are with NOW.
- The most important activity is what you are doing NOW.
- The most important & easy way to be happy is to make somebody else happy NOW.
- The best way to create a future is to be mindful NOW.
Unknown-Thai Buddhist Monk
Source Deepak Chopra Foundation
How do you respond to being asked to wait? Enjoy waiting
This week, observe how you behave when you are required to wait for something whether it is a bus, a friend, a coffee, an email, an answer. Check in with how you respond to being asked to wait. See if you can embrace this waiting time as a gift rather than an inconvenience. Many of us feel our frustration building when we are in a queue or stuck in traffic. In this digital age have become programmed for immediate gratification and our brains have become wired for instant hits. However, this impulse to get what we want NOW works against us and creates cortisol (the stress hormone) when our needs are not immediately met.
Part of the mindfulness movement is about creating “brain breaks” from our over-scheduled minds; when we are required to wait, life presents us with a golden opportunity to enjoy the moment when nothing is expected of us but to simply be. Changing our perspective on waiting from frustration to mental freedom from doing allows life to flow positively at all times.
This week, enjoy waiting!
I just had to share this poem, written by Christian Daa Larson (1874-1954). Larson was the founder of the New Thought Movement in America. The New Thought Movement was a group of philosophical thinkers who held the belief that optimism and positive thinking played an integral role in our health. Promise yourself
This week, make the commitment to say this poem to yourself.
To be so strong that nothing
can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness, and prosperity
to every person you meet.To make all your friends feel
that there is something in them
To look at the sunny side of everything
and make your optimism come true.To think only the best, to work only for the best,
and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others
as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past
and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times
and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself
that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear,
and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world,
not in loud words but great deeds.
To live in faith that the whole world is on your side
so long as you are true to the best that is in you.”
― Christian D. Larson, Your Forces and How to Use Them
