Thank you all for being a part of this challenge. As I have said several times I have loved reading your posts, comments, feedback and thoughts. You are a very wonderful group of people. Please read the email I have sent you all.
I will be sending the winner of the 4 session an email shortly.
I would like if you could write 1 word in the comment box below that sums up this challenge for you?
In true gratitude <3
Carina
So we are at the day before the end, or the beginning. We started with the question what does being mindful mean to you? What qualities does that bring to your life?
Today I would like you to look at what this focus, this commitment has brought to you this past month. What are you taking with you? What is important for you to remember or remind yourself of further down the line? But not blogging about it for me/us to read (of course you can if you want to share that).
I always do this exercise at the end of a course or a longer 1:1 program. I would like to you to write a letter to future you. Reflect on the questions above. Close your eyes and recall what has touched you, what were you reconnected with, what challenged you, what are you afraid you might forget?
Write a letter with everything you want to tell yourself.
This site http://www.futureme.org is awesome. You write yourself a letter, select a date in the future and it will send it to you. I would advise you to select a date a few months away. Maybe even a year from now. If you now a better site please use that.
Looking forward to sharing one last day with you all.
Do you have an endless list of little things that you need to get done? Things that seems less important but still tend to create stress, or maybe comments from your partner (my house :))? Is there a book you want to finish? Is there an email you need to send, but have been putting off doing?
Procrastination sounds a little like an illness - maybe for some it feels like it. Other times the big things get put in line first leaving the little things to pile up and they begin to feel a bigger. Do you know the feeling?
You know that getting them done can leave you feeling so satisfied and peaceful. Not getting it not can foster judgement and a harsh tone towards yourself. This is also a good practice to sort through what you actually can do, and what is out of your limit.
Being mindful can help you out of constant worry and obsession about these kind of things. And today I would like you to look at it two fold.
Now write a post or grab your journal and write about your reflections, experience and share your story.
1. Add the URL http://www.mindfulground.com/day-28-tying-loose-ends as a TrackBack link
2. Add a comment below with a few words about your post with a link to the blogpost
Haven't we done that already? Well yes but I would like to bring in some formal meditation again. It is an important part of a mindfulness practice. Is it a time where you have decided and commit to being with yourself and what arises as you sit or lay down. Reflections, time, writing, resistance, confusion, wanting more of the good stuff can bring you to your head a lot.
Today we are bringing awareness back to the present moment, to what is happening right now. I would also like for you to notice if getting yourself to sit has become easier, harder, the same throughout this challenge? Do you feel more motivated?
A long time ago when I did my first training, I felt that the more I meditated, read about meditation, went on retreats, the less I knew. At one point I said to my teacher "I don't think I know what mindfulness is", her reply was "Well, now you are ready to teach". I don't know that I was, but the point is that Mindfulness is a billion different things. Awareness of what is shines a light on whatever experience is there. You can sit 1000 times, and the next time is like none of the other. What is it like for you to sit this time?
You can go back to Day 3 for link, instructions or as I know many of you already have guides etc. that you use.
Now write a post or grab your journal and write about your reflections, experience and share your story.
1. Add the URL http://www.mindfulground.com/day-27-sit-again as a TrackBack link
2. Add a comment below with a few words about your post with a link to the blogpost
Its a no-brainer that getting out-of-doors, even for just a few moments each day, is so very good for us and yet what we choose to focus upon in that time can make all the difference to the experience that we harvest.
When we quiet the incessant mind chatter and take a moment to see...to really see...the beautiful minutiae and the awe-striking cosmic display of the universe around us, this can become like a meditation within the very flow of life. I speak of all those commonplace moments that so often go unnoticed; as when light transfigures the wet surface of a road, ignites scraggy autumn leaves or when great white clouds the size of a mountain range rise suddenly above the city rooftops.
There is awe to be experienced in such moments. Once we become open to them, these moments start to appear everywhere as though newly arrived to embellish the morning traffic jam or the rainiest of walks to the shops.
Now attuned to see what we used to miss, we reconnect with the expanded viewpoint of our own highest self and so recalibrate our entire point of view to become super-expanded and regularly joy-filled. Much of the petty drama and stress of life seems to shrink down so small, from this broadened perspective, that it could almost disappear into the pavement cracks.
These moments also provide us with a daily reminder that we are the creator of our own reality because the more we invite them, the more we receive confirmation that what we are focusing upon really does become the defining aspect of our experience. Suddenly, it seems, there are moments of beauty and radiance all around us and life becomes filled-up to the brim with intensely wonderful experiences.
Taking photographs of these moments focuses the exercise even more and will amaze you with results that make your heart sing. In fact, the technical ‘failures’, when light fragments into rainbow colours or the view becomes super saturated with light, are often the most stunning and surprising photographs of all. Be warned: this practice can become addictive once started and may lead you into new territory, even painting or creating from what your eyes newly appreciate and yet the aim of this exercise is to capture rawest beauty, not a masterpiece.
In fact, I encourage you to snap away with no concern for the artistry of the outcome as these images are quite secondary to the effect that opening your eyes to such simple moments of loveliness will have upon your wellbeing, your health and the amount of gratitude and joy that fills your days
Take a small camera for a walk. Relax your eyes, disengage your thoughts (especially that self-critical voice) and allow your gaze to fall naturally upon whatever draws it. Take many, many photos and ditch all the rules, especially those that say ‘don’t point a camera towards light’ (though take care not to look directly into the sun). Enjoy and be amazed by the incredible results!
Now write a post or grab your camera or phone take and share your photos
1. Add the URL http://www.mindfulground.com/day-26-with-helen-white/ as a TrackBack link
2. Add a comment below with a few words about your post with a link to the blogpost
About Helen White
Helen White is a self-taught professional artist whose work is exhibited in galleries across the UK and beyond, including London and New York, as well as being held in private collections internationally. Her paintings of moments of light – which can be viewed at www.helenwhite.org - have been said to contain an energy all of their own, described by world renowned energy teacher Lee Harris (who has one on his wall) as ‘like a portal into another dimension’.
Her self-managed recovery from fibromyalgia and the profound connections that she perceived between creativity, expanded-consciousness, energy-awareness and balanced health led to the creation of a blog Scattering the Light which has added a growing readership to those who already follow her art. Now a featured author in the bestselling Adventures in Manifesting series, she shares her story and the connections she has made in her story ‘Beautiful journey, living with soul’ in the forthcoming book ‘Soulful Relationships’, now available to order from her websites.
