In today’s fast-paced world it is so easy to get distracted by competition, stress, and goals. While mindfulness has been around for ages, it is now the hot trend that helps busy professionals, parents, and students better navigate life by being present and aware of where we are and what we’re doing.
Nomophobia: The fear of being away from, or completely without your smartphone. Sound familiar? I winced when I first heard this term in a discussion about smartphone addiction because of how strongly I can identify with this. While ‘nomophobia’ has yet to work its way into official scientific vernacular, awareness of this issue has fast-tracked this term into everyday usage.
Years ago I read an interview about James Franco’s childhood. When he found out he would die one day, he cried because there were so many things he wanted to do and he didn’t think he’d be able to accomplish them all in his lifetime. I relate, but not exactly in the same way. Yes, there is a lot I want to see and do, but my predominant feeling is that I’m behind. If life were a race, my perception is I’d be losing.
Sometimes, we need to step back and take a breather. There's nothing more unhealthy than forgetting you're alive. How could people forget they're alive, you ask?
The essence of the human enterprise is encapsulated in the pursuit of meaning.
We must live with a sense of meaning, otherwise our lives become greatly chaotic. There must be a deep and abiding sense of purpose in our lives, for without which we slip into trends of banality, triviality, and perhaps even crookedness.
When meaning is lost, we can grow dark. We might capitulate to our more deviant and destructive tendencies. We may give way to warfare and strife. We might even generate sorrow – both within and without.
Resolutions come and go, but creating lasting, sustainable change takes determination, effort and a desire to see results. Let’s skip the New Year, new you propaganda and just focus on understanding the theory behind mindfulness as it relates to nutrition, and see how easy implementing mindfulness into your daily life can be with six simple guidelines to follow.
When it comes to eating, why is it that we, as a society, relinquish control or do not act consciously when making food choices?
Do you run from task to task, eating smoothies on-the-go and answering emails during your commute? Are you constantly ticking things off your to-do list and multitasking a mile a minute? Whoaaa, Nelly. Give yourself a break! Get your head out of the stress cloud and your feet back to the ground by allowing yourself to just exist in the area around you. Slow it down. Breathe. Sit back down in your office chair, and feel your feet in your shoes, on the wood floor, or in your rainbow toe socks. Close your eyes. Hear the sounds of the office, the commuter train, or the birds. Feel the breeze.
Hindu and Buddhist thought are based on a different set of assumptions than the Semitic religions. One major difference has to do with the meaning of rituals. A ritual in the Vedic traditions (Hindu and Buddhism) is spiritual because it demands mindfulness. In the developed world especially, rituals often lose their spiritual meaning and decay into meaningless routines.
The great Persian poet Rumi offered his inspired take on love, advising the seekers to consider, “your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” Substitute the word “healing” for “love” and you have the basic philosophy that lies at the heart of any true holistic healing modality. Your body naturally cultivates wellness. Every second of every day, every cell in your body is working to bring your body back into a state of optimal functioning.
I sat across from a woman at dinner on a Saturday night-- a woman I knew first as a girl, who now has a beautiful girl of her own, and another on the way. Surrounding us were the flesh and faces that accompanied us both during our college days. We had all gathered after many years to celebrate the most recent accomplishment of one of our dear friends, and this had turned out to be a full-fledged college reunion of sorts, complete with the obligatory barrage of surface-level questions better suited for a job interview than a gathering of friends.