Right Mindfulness ~ Start a rEVOLution!!!

Heart Nebula IC 1805 discovered by William Herschel

"Turn, ever turn toward love..." February started with this sweet aspiration and the theme of "Revolution!" materialized.  Love, gratitude, peace...are all a practice. I don't know about you, but when I have space in my day, I can rotate more freely, towards the qualities I wish to express and grow in myself. This brings us to the Noble Eight-Fold Path which has been explored since August in a number of IC blog articles--next one up ~ Right Mindfulness.

Mindfulness could be defined as the practice of paying attention. Sometimes our attention is wholesome and sometimes not so wholesome. This Lover of Metaphors appreciates the idea of a garden. Imagine our mind is the soil, with all kinds of seeds (anger, fear, love, gratitude, etc). Which seeds do we water? If we water the tomato seeds, tomatoes will grow. If we water the rows of corn, we don't expect sunflowers. Wholesome mindfulness is the practice of consciously paying attention to what we wish to grow and express in ourselves and in others.

Unwholesome mindfulness might be paying attention to another's shortcomings, seeing his big red button and thinking, "do EEEEEEET!" as we reach to push...but...with right mindfulness we interrupt this pattern and instead, turn, ever turn ~ we have a revolution toward love, peace, compassion and understanding.  We might think this is harder than hard! Perhaps that's why mindfulness is often defined as a practice and a way of life. What are our tools for practice?

• Stopping
• Breathing

Breathing is as natural as, well...breathing. Perhaps it's the stopping that's the challenging part. Science now shows simply oxygenating one's body is enough to shift the nervous system (turn, ever turn...) and light up the parts of the brain that generate empathy, compassion and insight.

• Stop
• Breathe
• Turn

Photo compliments of Eluna Photography

Another beautiful metaphor often used to represent mindfulness is the moon which shines on everything without exception. Moon reflects sun and doesn't differentiate good from bad. Right Mindfulness shares the same qualities of reflecting our inner universe without discrimination. Sometimes moon is full and bright, sometimes it's a mere sliver, or even dark, but moon is always there, same as mindfulness. 

In this month of February, may you turn toward the sweetness of love, reflecting full and bright the beautiful universe within and around you. Start a rEVOLution!