On the road to my best life I've been thinking a lot about Mindfulness these days.
In fact, on the road during a walk this week, while I was thinking about mindfulness, I saw some American bittersweet climbing up and around in a cedar tree. I love that bright orange/red surprise in November. I stopped and just let myself be happy about that.
For a lot of years, I lived in the future. Always planning and preparing and multitasking and being super efficient. It was awesome as far as getting stuff done goes, but not so awesome as far as being balanced and happy goes.
Eventually I decided I'd rather be happy than efficient. For example, a few years ago I started walking every day.
At first, I thought I was multitasking - walk the dog/get exercise/talk to my daughter [who often came with me]/take photos for the blog. It was the only way I could rationalize wasting that much time on something that I liked.
At some point I found myself just walking with no camera, no company. I told myself the dog really needed these walks even though I realized they cleared my head and gave me space to process strong emotions.
And then I started painting, which totally changed how I see the world. I started really observing a lot more. And that changed the quality of my walks.
With or without company, the dog, the camera, every walk became about really seeing what was out there, in that light, at that season. What does the sky really look like? What does the light really do in November through those trees at 4pm?
Every walk is a lovely surprise with one goal. Observe. And being mindful is all about observing what is going on in that moment. Living in the now.
What are you doing to be mindful today?
If you'd like to have more conversations about what you're doing to live your best life, I'd like to invite you to join our Best Self facebook group where we can talk freely about becoming our best selves - and all that that entails.
