The Meditation and Mindfulness Movement is really picking up Momentum. Davidji quotes Lao Tzu saying, “When I let go of Who I am, I become Who I might be.” What a relief! As an American- I (Who I am) and my fellow weird ones are becoming much more relaxed about expressing who we are, our organic essence. It’s amazing what happens when we Breathe. You are reading one of the perks of this becoming (Who I might be). I find myself being more and more in the world than of the world. That is something that had confounded me for decades.

The year started with the MINDFUL REVOLUTION cover of TIME magazine (2014Jan23).  In the following months Science tallied hypothetical, statistical, empirical, categorical type data with analysis ongoing.  Initial findings indicate potential limitless beneficial consequences in adopting a meditation practice. The evidence is overwhelming. Our brains improve. We become Mindful. The simple act of sitting quietly and comfortably for a few minutes a day and breathing… Breathe In/Breathe Out, returning our focus back to – breathe… breathe… breathe… we’re mindful. We find ourselves noticing and comprehending  much more. Our creativity is sparked, and that is always a wonderful thing! — The year ends on a high note with Anderson Cooper presenting a ’60 Minutes’ segment on meditation and mindfulness. Andy Kelly aka The Boston Buddha and United States Congressman Tim Ryan are outspoken teachers and advocates, encouraging everyone to develop and benefit from a daily mindfulness practice. Andy explains that meditating  20 minutes a day is ideal in cultivating mindfulness. Being mindful has enormous benefits for our entire country, and the world. We are redefining the mainstream.

Our Millennial/Gen-Y’ers and their children are at an advantage. Meditation and mindfulness, along with the realization that energy flows where attention goes, offers huge potential for us. Even though there may seem a lot of ugliness surfacing at the moment, the mass consciousness is evolving. From outrage and helplessness into anger and frustration, that’s a step up! We know better now. Cultivating a meditation practice makes way for us to continue the relief process. It allows us to engage genuine well-being into every category of life. That shift is happening now. A quantum leap is in the works.

We are coming together as a People. We are attracting and aligning. We are bright forward thinkers. We appreciate a peaceful world. We believe in kindness. We are the river carving out the canyon. And, we’re picking up momentum doing it one drop, one person, one breathe at a time. We are becoming a Meditation Nation. It’s only natural.

Imagine – you are at a free buffet and it has all of your favorite foods cooked and prepared to perfection. The buffet is limitless in its culinary fare. It is conveniently located near your house. On those ‘wouldn’t it be nice’ days, it can be waiting for you when you arrive home. You may come up to the buffet any time you are hungry and even when you are not. You can pick and choose and nibble and enjoy every morsel of yumminess you desire. It is delicious to choose whatever you want whenever you want it. The creation is at your pleasure. Maybe at first you gorge yourself. After a while you realize there is no need to overdue it at one sitting. The buffet is always open. You begin to relax about this part of your living experience. Your balance takes over and you feel good and you are happy. Imagine now that your free buffet also includes dishes that you don’t care for. Some of the foods you may even detest. They make you feel ill just smelling them. They contain no aesthetic appeal to you. You can’t imagine why this stuff is included on your buffet table. Then you realize, there are unlimited choices on the buffet. The buffet includes everything. All of the unappealing luftwaffle is way over there, in the remote areas. You don’t even have to go there. There is so much more of what you like in the forefront of the buffet that the other stuff seems nonexistent. You understand that it is ALL available to you and YOU get to decide what it is you would like to put on your plate.

There are many  buffet types. On the entertainment buffet we perceive a range of sentience from the heavy and dark to the lighthearted and laughable. We get to choose how we want to feel in watching what we choose to watch. Humankind is now discovering an energetic buffet. On this buffet is a limitless array of possibility. The delicious part is we get to choose what we put on our energetic plates. In our ignorance we usually go for those habitual, chronic thoughts. They don’t always taste very good but it’s what we’re used to. We always get to pick and prefer and decide where and what we are going to focus on thus think about. Through our choices at the buffet, we set a trajectory, pre-paving a feeling-direction for our imminent living experience.

To that end, there is no denying we are an informed nation. To the degree and quality to which we are informed is completely up to us. When you’re at the buffet, take the high road and be picky. Ask yourself, ‘is this information enhancing me for the better? I’ll take some of that. Does this type of input lift me up? Some of that too, please. Is there nothing constructive I can contribute? Does it make me feel powerless? I think I’ll pass on that.’ We can only give what we have.

…changing the channel

Did you know that there are ConstantlyNegativeNews -entertainment channels that use animal names too? The perfect example of how a group of people, one by one, can come to invest their time/thought/capital. With hypnotic influence, constituents parrot the jargon. It tends to breed distaste and disrespect in misguided cultures – only for the moment. Our response has been akin to mindlessly standing in front of that beautiful buffet and then tearing up the place, frantically reaching for the dreaded, dry, pan fried liver with canned beets, and then eating it! Its addictiveness is a practiced daily routine. Alas, it’s all part of the buffet. We’ve been ingesting this liver, seems like forever. It’s so great to remember that there is all this other stuff, right here up front, that we like so much better!

To some, the world appears as snowballing muck. To others, it appears as mucking snowballs. It is plain to see feel how our attention is commanded to this end of the buffet, the loud and obnoxious non-stop hype. It makes us sicker and sicker with each thought we devote to it.  Fortunately, we have an Organic Essence. In times of crisis as in times of Peace let us remember the buffet. Think of it as a thought playground where you can, in any ‘now’ moment, lean toward a feeling of improvement. It’s the part of us that calmly walks up to the buffet and decides ‘I’m going to plate only my favorites and enjoy that incredible triple chocolate truffle for dessert – first.’ We are what we eat. It’s only natural.

1. Mindfulness

Living as a cultural social mass our forms of language is ever evolving, faster and faster. Words like Natural, Organic, Wellness – and now Mindfulness and Meditation and Law of Attraction, are being hastily homogenized, gelatinized and regurgitated throughout the corporate swirl. Yesterday, I happened upon a program on NPR regarding those very subjects. Until a few years ago I hadn’t realized that meditation and mindfulness was such a Thing. It has always been a part of my daily life in one form or another.

Mindfulness is often a by-product of Meditation. Mindfulness takes many forms and they’re all good. Science is grabbing hold of the evidence. Here’s a taste of some heavy duty mindfulness. I can recall as a child, a fondness for the feeling of being tuned-in, being in the woods on my own; and, as I do so recall the feeling, I feel the feeling, and I am no longer recalling it, I am mindful I am being it, now, feeling it, now.

‘Don’t look back – you’re not going that way’ are great words of wisdom. The re-call process can be tricky. Unless we have eyes in the backs of our heads, like my mother always professed to have, we are meant to look forward with confidence. Being mindful to notice our energies out ahead of ourselves with an easy-going intent and eagerness, radiating a genuine improved feeling, tends to flow life experiences through us with a little more grace.

Be mindful about feeling. Every day, upon waking, before your feet hit the floor, before your head comes off the pillow, spend a moment finding a feeling of appreciation. I love to bask in the residual warmth of my slumber and the peacefulness of the morning. This one little thought, even before I open my eyes, sets a positive trajectory for my entire day.

 When using buzzwords it is our meaning that matters. Words like ‘dharma’, ‘karma’ ‘suffering’ ‘forgiveness’ and ‘god’ have about as many definitions and nuance as there are people on this earth, which equates to just under 7.2 billion to this point. A billion days ago no one walked the earth on two feet. Our words have authentic meaning yet fall short when describing the Indescribable. Being mindful, our thoughts, intentions and our very Beings will never become a corporate commodity. And that, my friends, is called Freedom.