When Melyssa at The Nectar Collective announced her creative line up I knew right away that I was going to participate because all the prompts help focus your blog on being authentic and genuine, which are qualities that I admire.
Today’s prompt is a word that you want to focus on in 2014. And to me that word is mindfulness.
I want to be better (more mindful) at staying in the present, to pay better attention and engage my use of awareness more. I want to be a calmer, more peaceful version of myself that multitasks less and devotes my attention to where it truly matters. I need to simplify and de-clutter my life. I need to be more mindful about the way I treat myself physically and mentally, about the way I treat others and about the choices that I make, in my personal and professional life.
There was a Guardian article published a few days ago that talked about how people who suffer from depression and anxiety showed a 20% clinical improvement rate in their symptoms when they practiced a mindful form a daily meditation. In fact, it had about the same effectiveness as your average antidepressant.
I find the very idea of observing my own thoughts and feelings from a distance without judging them, just letting them pass by, nerve-wracking. Which is why my word of 2014 will be quite the challenge for me. I’m not claiming that I am going to be able to spend 15 minutes every single day sitting alone in a quiet place, focusing on my breathing, paying attention to my body and not letting my mind wander. But I can try to adopt aspects of that practice into my everyday life this year.
Are you focusing on a word this year?
