Even though I’m a long-time meditation practitioner and teacher, there are still times when I’m mindless, unconscious and unaware.
Mindfulness takes practice.
The more you practice mindfulness, the more mindful you become.
Its effect are cumulative and totally worth it.
I like the saying, “How you do anything is how you do everything.”
For instance… I just noticed how I placed my coffee cup down on the desk. There are times when I’d place my cup down – mindlessly – and then immediately proceed to knock it over with my elbow as I reach over to raise the blinds.
That awareness is called mindfulness.
As you get better at noticing, you begin to bring that noticing to how your interact with your clients, work, team members and most importantly – yourself.
This raises the bar on who you become.
Suddenly you see yourself in a new light, a light of self-compassion. You become more forgiving and more accepting of yourself.
I looked up the definition for self-acceptance. This is what I found:
The more you are accepting of yourself, the more you’re able to be accepting of others.
This Is It
Acceptance is your response to anything that is occurring in any situation or experience and seeing it as: “This Is It.”
You readily accept sadness when you’re sad, fear when you’re afraid and happiness when you’re happy, without attempting to change or protest it, without labeling it good or bad, or escaping from it – regardless if the situation or experience is negative, uncomfortable or unacceptable.
Acceptance is a key component of mindfulness.
Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn’t more complicated than that. It is opening to or receiving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it.–Sylvia Boorstein
Acceptance and surrender are closely related. You might say that when you learn to accept life as it is, this acceptance naturally leads you to a deeper surrendered state.
Like an ever-opening flower, I’ve found that growth is a succession of surrendered states and mindsets.
Conscious Surrender
For many of us, the word surrender has a negative connotation. We think surrendering means waving a white flag and giving up or quitting. From childhood, we are taught that quitters never win.
If you surrender, you are perceived as vulnerable, weak and defeated.
Conscious surrender is about ending the suffering and struggle in your life.
When you surrender, you no longer demand that an experience, person or place should satisfy or make you happy. When you no longer place a demand on every experience, person or place something new happens – the mind begins to rest and a new stillness arises.
You finally admit to yourself that you’re not in control. You get comfortable with not knowing and that sometimes life just doesn’t make sense.
You acquiesce. Meaning: “To rest in.”
In the end just three things matter: How well we have lived, how well we have loved & how well we have learned to let go. ― Jack Kornfield
