It is indisputable that we are a culture of DOERS! We are rewarded for DOING more, multitasking, working faster and longer hours. We equate our self-worth with how well we DO things in life, on our successes and failures and how we compare with others. Busyness has become the new norm, with stillness making most of us uncomfortable. And so the cycle goes, we continue to seek busyness and distraction as an escape, until we never stop moving.
This cycle of DOING causes us to fall prey to a life in which we are absent.
We end up pushing through the moments, but we never actually inhabit them. We spend our energy and time stuck in the past and hurrying toward the future, all the while mindlessly reacting to all that unfolds around us.
Mindfulness meditation forces us to take time simply BEING in our own space. This BEING is awareness. But it is more than awareness! It is nonjudgmental awareness, acknowledging and accepting all that exists in that moment. This nonjudgmental awareness is especially important when we find ourselves in an uncomfortable place. We learn to acknowledge and accept the moment as it arises without resistance.
Meditation is not about getting somewhere or obtaining some desired result. Instead, it is about learning to BE right where you are at the very moment that you are there. There is a sense of freedom when you drop your resistance and judgments and just BE.
We do not meditate to be happy. We meditate to learn how to embrace all of our nature and BEING, all of our states of awareness without any attachments or aversions. We learn to BE equanimous right where we find ourselves. May we all practice BEING more!
Focus on who you are becoming not what you are doing. Hal Elrod
Sending you all so much love,
Shari
