Mindfulness 

 Mindfulness is deliberately paying full attention to what is happening around you and within you – in your body, heart and mind . . . (Jan Chozen Bays)

. . . in the present moment, and as non-reactively, as non-judgmentally, and as openheartedly as possible. (Jon Kabat Zinn)

In today's world, pausing to become fully aware of what is present in the moment can feel like a radical act. It’s radical because both our inner experience - in the natural chatter of our minds with its well-worn habits and patterns - and our outer environment with all of its stimuli and distractions, seem set up to continually carry us away from this moment and into past regrets or imagined futures.  

We need ways to practice pausing. In mindfulness practice, our attention needs a stable anchor and so we find our breath, or the sensation of our feet on the floor, or the hearing of a sound. When we can pause and give attention to things as they are 'as openheartedly as possible', we can find that there is also space for clarity about the experience and compassion towards ourselves within it.  

This way of being mindfully present is our birthright, it’s a capacity we already possess.When we practice mindfulness we are growing our existing and natural capacity to experience life in all of its fullness, with all of its ups and downs. We can attend to the particular ingredients of that moment, whether it is occurring during a wonderful conversation, while becoming aware of a difficult emotion or physical sensation, or whether it occurs in the heated centre of conflict. With practice, a growing clarity and 'response-ability' can protect us from overstretching ourselves and burning out, while at the same time it increases our ability to be touched by the world.