I would hazard to guess that the term Mindfulness has never been used more…in the history of mindfulness…than since the onset of Covid. We need to be intentional and aware of what we are doing these days – our lives and health may depend on it.

There are many definitions of Mindfulness.

Mine is: Being aware of, and fully engaged in, what is happening in your moment-to-moment experience, without judging or trying to change it.

Or…as one grade 5 student in a school mindfulness program put it: “It means not hitting someone in the mouth.”

Mindful is a way of Being in your life. You learn to notice where you are, what you are doing, how you feel about it and ultimately choosing to relate to it with a wise response as opposed to an often unhelpful, knee-jerk reaction.

Practicing mindfulness is about purposely cultivating a balanced relationship with whatever is going on in your life.

Why should you do that? Because when you are constantly overwhelmed by what’s happening in your experience, or burnt out by trying to control it all, it creates a lot of unnecessary stress, which affects your mental and physical health and wellbeing.

Meditation teacher, Jon Kabat-Zinn nailed it when he described life as a turbulent ocean where: You can’t stop the waves – but you can learn to surf.

Life is inherently full of incredible joys and frustrating challenges. But with mindfulness you can be with those ups and downs in a kinder, easier, and more accepting way.

Through mindfulness, we can learn a new way to navigate our life: with Wisdom, Compassion and Equanimity.