Mindfulness for Beginners

For the record – I am a beginner.

When I created Free Spirit Planner, the name was inspired by my personality during our traveling adventures. My love for planning the travel itinerary prior but then triggering my inner free spirit to just go with the flow during the vacation.

But something happens to me every time we travel – I absolutely love the person I become while we are vacationing. I become the person I want to be in my everyday life – more carefree, more laid back, go with the flow, ‘it is what it is’ type of person…MORE MINDFUL.

I started becoming obsessed with vacations – solely for chasing this person I wanted to be. I was doing anything in my power to plan vacations and set them up. Finding ways to cut back our budget so we could travel more.

It wasn’t until I listened to Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations podcast with Jon Kabat-Zinn called Mindful 101 that I understood myself more. And why I had such a love for traveling.

Zinn is an author of the best selling book Mindfulness for Beginners (currently on my holds list at the library). He speaks on the podcast of how to be mindful, what it looks like, and why it is important. And I’m not kidding when I say this – it is a life-changing podcast!

Zinn explains mindfulness as making a conscious effort to be in the moment – to be aware of this moment.

This is something that seems so simple but it’s not easy. It is a practice that takes effort every day.

Being mindful and living in the moment was exactly what I was doing on every single vacation. I know the moment.. the vacation, will pass by so fast so I make the conscious effort to be fully in the moment. Take in everything around me.

But why was I only doing this when we were on vacation?

Being a stay at home mom and spending every day with my children is something I am extremely grateful that I get to do but sometimes I take it for granted – I forget to be mindful, be present, to live in the moment.

I am an obsessive planner and dreamer – so my mind is always in the future. When I really started to pay attention to my mind – I realized it talks too much!

This podcast made me recognize that it is mindfulness that I need, not just when I’m in vacation mode, but it’s what I need in my everyday life. I need to practice it every day!

We only have this moment, so live in it!

Living daily life being mindful equals peace.

The only way to survive the outside and internal noise is to be mindful. But it is hard; it takes practice, daily practice.

Practice doing it in the shower – if you’re in the shower – just be in the shower.

If you’re cooking supper – just cook supper.

If you’re talking to your child – just talk to them.

Make the conscious effort to be in the moment.

Your children, more than anyone else, know when you are present. My daughter taught me that lesson when she was two years old. Whenever she would be talking to me and I wasn’t listening because my mind was somewhere else – I would say ‘uh huh’ and she would always say back to me, “Don’t say uh huh Mama!” She knew I wasn’t listening and being mindful in that moment.

So be aware of this moment because if you’re not you’ll miss it. And before you know it – you’ll miss 5, 10, 20 years living in the past and/or future instead of the present moment.

Without being mindful we are missing out. We are missing out on our beautiful lives we have created.

So I am working on being mindful, aware of the moment I am in, and not just doing it when we are traveling but every day because every day is such a gift.