“When you breathe in, and you are aware of your in-breath, you touch the miracle of being alive.”
~ Thích Nhất Hạnh

The authors of many of the spiritual books I’ve read over the last five years emphasize the importance of staying in the moment rather than worrying about the past or projecting to the future, as a way of relieving stress. The practice, borrowed from Buddhism, is called mindfulness, and is defined as “a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.”

Meditation, which includes relaxation techniques often focused on the breath, is one of the main tools used for building mindfulness. The article “Mindfulness and Meditation: What’s the Difference?” explains the relationship between the two practices.

When we become stressed out or overwhelmed, practicing these forms of relaxation can help us recalibrate and rebalance ourselves so we’re better prepared to handle life’s challenges.

We have an inherent capacity to come back to balance and ease in our lives, if only we pause and tap into it.

Having heard of the positive benefits of both mindfulness and meditation, especially for managing anxiety, I’ve mentioned both in these previous posts, but I can’t say I’ve fully incorporated them into my daily life…yet.

How to Calm Your Busy Mind
Healing the World Through Compassion
Gratitude Provides a Path to Happiness

A friend is currently looking at a mid-life career change and is interested in the field of mindfulness. I’ve been increasingly curious about it, too, so this week we started researching the subject. We found an 8-week online course and decided to check it out. The idea of learning something new is always appealing to me, but especially right now with the cold, gray days we’ve had of late.

This class is free, self-directed, and primarily involves watching videos, reading articles, and doing meditations. It’s pretty low-commitment, and there are no tests, which is a bonus, although there are sheets on which we are to record our goals and our observations. At the end of the class, we’ll submit them through the site to receive the certification, which is a pre-requisite for the more advanced certifications required to teach mindfulness.

We’ve done the Getting Started portions of the course, and are ready to begin Week 1. Much of the preliminary information is about the history and efficacy of mindfulness meditation. According to Saki Santorelli, Executive Director of the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, “The research has been suggesting that these practices can have a powerful and positive effect on health and well-being across a wide range of medical and psychological conditions.”

For several years now I’ve been fascinated by the idea of neuroplasticity—the idea that we can literally change the anatomy of our brains, even down to the cellular level, by what we do or think about. After learning about the number of scientific studies on the health benefits of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) going back to 1979, including ones that examine brain function, I’m convinced that what it offers is real.

There are apparently three qualities of mindfulness that bring these positive changes about:  attention (being aware in each moment), intention (the purposeful choice to do so), and attitude (the open curiosity that we bring to our awareness).

Even though a structured mindfulness practice is best, just taking a moment here and there to appreciate something beautiful can change your point of view and lift your mood. 

And who isn’t for anything that can lift our mood these days?

This week the real work begins for us…developing the habit to support the changes we want to see. (High blood pressure runs in my family and mine has been creeping up in the last few months. I’m curious to see if it can help lower my numbers. It’s definitely given me a strong motivation.)

I will say that some of the concepts are starting to sink in, and already I’m a bit more attuned to the natural world. I had my first revelation this week, related to a shamrock plant my sister gave me last year for St. Patrick’s Day. (Legend has it that St. Patrick used the shamrock in Ireland to teach about the Holy Trinity.) The plant started out quite small, with leaves similar to a three-leaf-clover. It grew big enough over the course of the year that I had to repot it. At some point it began flowering—tiny white flowers with delicate stems.

Last week after we got home from an extended trip, I was watering the plant during the evening—not my usual practice—when I realized that the now-huge leaves fold up at night, umbrella style. I almost wondered if the plant was dying, as the undersides of the leaves appeared darker. But the next morning when I checked on it, the leaves were wide open again. I turned one over and found that the back side is actually a pretty shade of purple! I did some research, and it turns out there are many species of shamrock, not all of them from Ireland. Mine, with its unique nightly ritual, is actually a South American species of wood sorrel called Oxalis regnellii.

My interaction with the plant brought home for me how much we fail to notice on a daily basis…even when something is in plain view. It appears that my shamrock has been happily opening and closing its petals all year long without me being aware of it! I confess I don’t connect with plants or even animals the way many of my friends do. I’m very much a people-person. But thinking about its funny little habit of tucking itself in at night makes me feel more connected to my shamrock, and it makes me smile.

Some of life’s solutions are the simplest. Who knew that just by looking…and really seeing… the incredible world God created for us, we could have so much more joy in our lives?

You may have heard that Thích Nhất Hạnh, the Buddhist monk who was known as “the father of mindfulness” passed away this week at the age of 95. I’m grateful to him for providing us with a way to heal ourselves by taking note of the natural beauty that surrounds us.

My friend and I are excited to see the ways in which becoming more mindful will change how we connect with the world and with ourselves. We’ll keep you posted.  

Affectionately,

Elaine