Write, draw and practice mindfulness and love

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention on the present. When you’re mindful, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to experience (Psychology Today).

Mindfulness is living in the now. It is essentially about being more aware and awake in every moment of your life. It is about intentionally paying attention to each moment, being fully engaged in whatever is happening around you and within you. It involves bringing an attitude of curiosity, acceptance and friendliness to whatever is experienced, rather than habitual patterns of judgment and criticism (Dr Craig Hassed & Dr Richard Chambers).

Mindful awareness can be considered as a way of being, more than something that involves our “doing” something….  How we pay attention (different from awareness), on purpose (but it doesn’t have to be done with active effort, it can in fact be an intention that happens “automatically” as a habit of being, not a consciously thought out plan of carrying out a way of focusing attention) to the unfolding of present moment experience (but, in fact, we can pay attention to memories of the past or plans for the future—but do so…) with a sense alertness, attention to detail, and with kindness and compassion…… We can have a mindful state of being, and a mindful trait of being. A state is in the moment. A trait is a habitual and repeated way of being over time and over various situations (Dr Dan Siegel, 2007; 2014).