Being Present and Aware is Mindfulness… Quote from this website article and highly informative video clip with Anderson Cooper, CBS News 60 Minutes…
Anderson Cooper: I don’t feel I’m very present in each moment. I feel like every moment I’m either thinking about something that’s coming down the road, or something that’s been in the past.
Jon Kabat-Zinn: So ultimately all this preparing is for what? For the next moment, like the last moment, like, and then we’re dead (laugh) so in a certain way…
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Our teachers at Neighbors for Kids, Depoe Bay, Oregon, spend a couple of minutes before each new program or class to help kids to be in the present…to be mindful. I have watched the technique many times and notice immediately how important it is to learning for children to transition quietly and breathe deeply as a way to focus on the present. Kids run from one thing to the next, minds full of anticipation and reflection…often not ready to focus in the present. Helping kids get back to being in the moment really works!
It took me many decades and most of my life to appreciate the value of being in the present. Mindfulness is the foundation for my own journey of healing as a trauma survivor. I am practicing being in the present right now while writing this important blog post. Writing is one of my key treatment strategies that changed my life almost 4 years ago while researching and writing my book, along with starting this blog. My mind does drift and being in the present takes some discipline. Self talk resulting from returning to a painful past and thinking too much about the future with anxiety is a habit not easily broken, especially for trauma survivors.
Although my life experience has proven that during those special times that I unknowingly practiced being in the present, it was always relaxing and joyful… I dreamed of being mindful of the present every moment of the day, but did not know how… I haven’t yet achieved perfection at “being,” but the joy of being present most of the time these days is a peace of mind to be treasured… Jon Kabat-Zinn: “a timeless quality of being in the moment…”
Steve Sparks, Author, Reconciliation: A Son’s Story and My Journey of Healing in Life After Trauma, Part 1… Click on the highlighted text for my author page…
