Mindfulness is a way of living, not a technique. There is beautiful warmth in living in the present moment which we come to know as the only moment available to us. The past is over and the future is not yet here. Mindful living is the cure for “hurry sickness” in our world that is moving too fast for human consumption. Our discontent is the clue: no matter how fast we go, how much we do, we find we’re not happier. We’re either numb, jaded and shut down because there is too much on our plate or we’re miserable because the life we’re leading doesn’t reflect our true selves. This suffering can be a vague, persistent foreboding that we will get to the end of our life and realize we weren’t really there for it. This “dis-ease” we’ve created in ourselves damages our minds, bodies and the world around us, which we’re ultimately responsible for. It is most often called “stress” and studies have proven that stress creates inflammation in the body and mind leading to physical and mental illness. The good news is we can cure ourselves by slowly and surely working to strengthen our sense of well-being and resiliency. We tap into veins of gold deep within us bringing to the surface our potential for transforming our experience of living from barely alive and overloaded with pain, to a saner reality, enhanced with a sense of ease and well-being no matter what is happening at any moment.

Mindfulness is the path to get to know who you really are and to have the capacity to be your own true self instead of who you or others think you are. It’s possible, really inevitable, that as we continue to practice meditation, we strengthen our mind/body connective awareness to a level of vibrancy we can feel in our bodies and sense in our minds. Then we can live more skillfully and find new and imaginative ways to work with our lives. We find “the good life” in the most surprising places.