mindful monday

dearest readers,

i hope your weekend was relaxing and filled with good things. my saturday involved a day-long mindfulness class with my mindfulness-based stress reduction group followed by an evening of decompression via crafting and organizing. it's surprising how taxing trying to be present can be! i posted one of my creations on our facebook group page (damask framed chalkboard fabric) and will share a how-to this week. sunday i indulged in a mani/pedi (it's on the daybook checklist after all), wrote, spoke at a leadership event, and organized my creative space (photos forthcoming) while the oscars unfolded. woke up with tired feet from the organizing marathon.

while reading full catastrophe living by jon kabat-zinn, i came across the above passage in the introduction. without sounding terribly dramatic, i feel that mindfulness holds the key to life. it's so juicy, many studies show how it helps pain, stress, and illness, and offers tools to stop repeated patterns. overall, good stuff. what i've underlined is:

"this work involves above all the regular, disciplined practice of moment-to-moment awareness or mindfulness, the complete owning of each moment of your experience, good, bad, or ugly. this is the essence of full catastrophe living. all of us have the capacity to be mindful. all it involves is cultivating our ability to pay attention in the present moment. we routinely and unknowingly waste enormous amounts of energy in reacting automatically and unconsciously to the outside world and to our own inner experiences."

whew, so that's one to chew on as we launch into a brand new week! may it be mindful, tranquil, and fabulous. oh, and consider joining a lovely group of like-hearted ladies for the 4-week tranquility project e-course launching on wednesday where i share favorite mind, body, and soul tips for tranquility. bisous. x