VOCABULARY:
Each Day A New Beginning
Just For Today
Every Breath You Take
Words matter.
For the start of the new year I thought it would be meaningful to reflect on the vocabulary that inspires us to practice both mindfulness and meditation.
As you read this, open your mind to taking a pause. Give yourself the gift of a new beginning in a moment of contemplative practice. Allow the body to be still so your mind can calm.
Bring your attention on purpose to your heart. Allow yourself to focus on intentionally creating your own light, joy, harmony, health wealth, gratitude, loving-kindness, peace and equanimity.
Be aware of your breathing. Focus on every breath traveling in and out of the nostrils. Pay attention on purpose but without judgment to sounds, sensations, feelings, or thoughts. In the stillness there can be pure awareness. This is mindful concentration.
We use phrases like; breathing in I calm my body, breathing out I am at ease. Or simply, calm – ease. If thoughts pull me, I notice them but don’t let them distract me. We return our attention to each breath.
Peace begins with me. My concentration on where my attention is helps me stay in the present. Present moment. Peaceful moment. Know you are seeking higher ground by choosing wisely to develop mindful concentration with every breath you take.
Breathing in I nourish my body. Breathing out I smile. I see a smile in my heart. I hold myself with the grace of gratitude, humility, and forgiveness.
Let’s have ‘To BE’ lists for 2025 not ‘To DO’ lists. Notice the days getting longer, the brilliant winter dusky sunsets, the sharper moons in the blue of the ending daylight sky. Let them inspire you as we burrow for another sixty days or so. Gift your body, mind, and spirit the vocabulary of peace and ease just for today.
Alice: Where shall I begin, please . . .
The King: Begin at the beginning . . . and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
– Lewis Carroll from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland