The Art of Being Mindful?

 On pages 40 and 41(of the Time Magazine on Feb. 3rd 2014) there is a two page picture of people literally wandering around trying to be mindful at a park somewhere. You likely have seen pictures of monks trying to do this various places on earth. But, this distinct gate of mindfulness isn't often seen in city settings.

quote: "Finding peac in a stressed out, digitally dependent culture may just be a matter of thinking differently." by Kate Pickert.

description of the 2 page photo: Walking the Walk: Students in a mindfulness class demonstrate a technique called aimless wandering.

end quote:
begin note.
I learned to master this growing up in the 1950s. We just used to call this "wandering around looking at nature". This was just something that we did back then especially in the wild and western states like Washington, Oregon and California and many of the other wilder states west of the Mississippi.

All my family on my father's side were either hunters, hikers, or mountain climbers or all three.

My Aunt, (my father's sister, even won the 35 mile race around Lake Washington in Seattle during the 1930s. )

I would like to quote the first two long paragraphs of this article on page 42 of the above magazine.

"The raisins sitting in my sweaty palm are getting stickier by the minute. They don't look particularly appealing, but when instructed by my teacher, I take one in my fingers and examine it. I notice that the raisin's skin glistens. Looking closer, I see a small indentation where it once hung from a vine. Eventually, I place the raisin in my mouth and roll the wrinkly little shape over and over with my tongue, feeling its texture. After a while, I push it up against my teeth and slice it open. Then, finally, I chew---very slowly.

I'm eating a raisin. But for the first time in my life. I'm doing it differently. I'm doing it mindfully. This whole experience might seem silly, but we're in the middle of a popular obsession with mindfulness as the secret to health and happiness--and a growing body of evidence suggests it has clear benefits." end quote from page 42 of Time Magazine Feb. 3rd 2014.


The benefits of being mindful about everything are mostly about wanting to stay alive, feeling good about staying alive, learning to create "quality of life rather than quantity of life" so every moment is savored and enjoyed which brings an ongoing sense of well being to your mind, body and life. The more you can experience life and all it's goodness the better able you will be able to help not only yourself but also potentially all others you meet or contact to a much better more fulfilling life, without thoughts of suicide interrupting your reverie.

Experiencing life allows you to create quality of life as you meditate on every moment. You can then ask yourself, "Is what I'm doing now helpful to me and all other beings?" And if not, why not change what you are doing to something that is helpful at the very least to you being happy and fulfilled in   every moment of your lives?