Think this whole mindfulness meditation thing is just woo-woo mumbo-jumbo that could never really do anything for you? Do you scoff at the idea and get defensive or evasive when the subject comes up?
Your stress is real!
Your pain is true!
How dare people dismiss your complaining!
How could just sitting around and doing nothing do anything?!
I’ll tell you how – your mind creates your stress and your pain, and therefore it isn’t real. It is a figment of your ego mind that has been holding you hostage for most of your life.
Your ego is not who you truly are, it is only the voice in your head that has lead you astray and far away from your truth, your peace and your power. Your ego has such a hold on you that you have lived most of your life not even understanding that you are not your ego – you are a perfect part of the perfect energy of the universe.
There probably was a time in human evolution when the ego was useful, even necessary. As we learned how to navigate this world, how to find food and create families and ensure our survival, the ego likely helped.
The ego helped define what was “good” and what was “bad,” to give us the strength to defend ourselves, to establish leaders and helpers and roles in a group that made the survival of the group possible.
But today, at this point in our evolution and in our society our egos only serve to divide us, to cause each of us to behave out of fear, to judge and attack. We no longer need to judge what will save us and what will kill us, who is good and who is bad.
At this point the only thing that our ego does is give us the illusion of being separate from each other and therefore the need to protect ourselves.
So what does all of this mean in terms of mindfulness? Escape. Peace. Contentment. By taking moments in your everyday life to be fully present and awake, you create a space in your mind for silence to come in and peace to be found.
In celebration of 500 issues of What’s Up Yukon, let’s practice 500 moments of mindfulness. And somewhere in all of the 500 mindful moments, I promise that you will find your inner peace. By consciously being present for 500 moments in your life, you will bring to yourself 500 moments of silence, 500 moments free of ego, 500 opportunities to find your way out of the fog.
So, I challenge you to take five mindful moments out of each and every day. When you put on your shoes or pour your coffee, stop, breathe and be consciously present. In 100 days you will have had 500 moments of being fully awake. You will have opened the door to your inner peace and to start living your life instead of your life living you.
