March Mindfulness

I was thinking back the other day to the day I bought my first book on Eastern philosophy. Nearly 25 years ago, My dad, best friend and I took a road trip in the early spring from Michigan to Colorado. We stopped in a small, independent bookstore enroute, and I picked up a philosophy book that looked interesting. It was a perfect introduction to many different forms of meditation, including mindfulness.

Since then, I have practiced meditation in some form or another. Meditation is just mental development. It's just observing your mind like a scientist vs. a judge. I like mindfulness based mediation because it's something you can practice wherever you are, whenever you can.

It occurred to me that March would be a perfect month for a mindfulness program. Really, any month, any day is a perfect time to start. The point of mindfulness is developing awareness. It's slowing and sometimes, if you're lucky, turning off the mental chatter so you can be more focused, more productive and ultimately more content. I wanted the program to be first and foremost simple. Simple actions done with great awareness are a great reminder to tune-in. Zone-in and not out.

I hope as many people as possible join the #marchmindfulness practice. In this time, in this culture we have more distractions than ever. It's so easy to feel overwhelmed. With practice, we can tame the mental lion and strengthen our "mindfulness muscle." A little bit of mindfulness everyday can go a long way.