Mindfulness versus Meditation
Mindfulness is gaining popularity as is meditation. Advocates recommend both as tools to assist us with our modern 24/7 non-stop busy lives that are packed with conflicting demands and uncertainty.
But Mindfulness and Meditation are not synonymous. Meditation is one technique for practicing mindfulness but not the only one. I know many people, including myself,
find meditation difficult as it requires dedication and practice.
So I was very interested to read Ellen Langer, (of Harvard University) who is considered the mother of mindfulness, define mindfulness as the “simple process of noticing new things.”. One of the things that puts busy people of Mindfulness is the misconception that is requires effort. So if you thought mindfulness was just as easy as mindlessness would you be more mindful?
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Soul Food
Last week I talked about having a spiritual connection, soul food is what helps increase our spiritual connection. Soul food is spiritual nourishment, it is anything that simply uplifts or inspires us. One universal source of spiritual uplift is to bring more beauty into life, whether this is through exploring nature, being creative or simply appreciating art. Beautifying your home or garden is an easy way to feel more spiritually nourished. Other common soul foods include enjoying the wonder of children or exquisite music. Making time to catch the sunrise or sunset can seem like a huge challenge in our busy lives yet it never fails to leave is feeling more uplifted. Similarly climbing to the top of a hill or mountain is worth the effort to see the view which can often uplift us. Another, key spiritual nourishment is to simply stop, and remember you are a “human being” not a “human doing”, so stop and take the time and space to simply be. We often feel down in the dumps or depleted when we have gotten to bogged down with responsibility, and “doing” while forgetting how to play, sing, dance and make things with our own hands. That is when its time to stop and nourish yourself with soul food. Remember soul food can literally be anything that nurtures us and makes life feel it’s worth living. Identifying your soul food and feeding it to yourself increases your spiritual connection which is profoundly healing and nurturing and probably one of the best form of preventative medicine you can give yourself. If you would like to improve your spiritual connection try exploring the following
- What lifts my spirit and inspires me? Can I spend more time doing what inspires me?
- Who lifts my spirit and inspires me? Can I spend more time with people like this?
- Are there any places that inspire me? How often would I like to visit them?
Spiritual Connection
The holistic approach has the view that we are spiritual beings in physical bodies; that we take on our physical form at our birth and return to the spiritual dimension after out death. It is important to get ourselves out of the hurly-burly of everyday life and to expand our state of awareness and consciousness by becoming more away or our own spiritual nature. People often suffer without realising it, from longing to connect to their own spiritual nature. Religious belief, prayer and meditation are the most well-known way to expand out awareness, consciousness and reconnect with our spiritual nature. Often it is an intense shock of a diagnosis of a life threatening disease e.g. cancer that awakens people to the reality of their spiritual connection. For the rest of us, there are often fleeting moment of spiritual connection when we are in nature, when we meditate, when we pray or experience moment of intense joy, beauty or pain. Others feel the reality of the spiritual dimension through experiencing the loving presence of a loved one who has passed away, spirit guides or divine beings. The purpose of mediums is try to contact this spiritual dimension to provide evidence of life after death. For the skeptics amongst you Michael Newton's books the Journey of Souls and the Destiny of Souls may provide more evidence to support the idea of life after death and a the concept that we are spiritual beings in physical bodies. Buddhists and Yogis believe that the material world and even our emotions are the illusion and that the spiritual dimension is the only reality. They maintain that our preoccupation with the material world stops us from experiencing the bliss and freedom of the spiritual dimension. For myself, I believe we very much live in this material world with jobs to do, children to parent and bills to pay so I always try to have my feet firmly routed here on earth. While I am not religious, I find being aware of my spiritual self and actively trying to increase my spiritual connection as it nourishes me and give me a sense of perspective and peach of mind which I find reassuring in my everyday life. So while my feet are firmly routed here on earth my head is in heaven.
