Monday Mindfulness

Cultivating Strength, Joy, Calm & Resilience


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Pretending to be bored

Waiting for my thoughts to quiet.

With each breath, feigning an attempt to soften the tension in my muscles.

Always on high alert, my body is the ever faithful soldier standing at attention, ready to advance, attack, or defend.

My thoughts and feeling providing constant counsel, conducting their business at all hours of the day and night as if essential personnel.

It is a strange request I make that all the components that serve me in my daily busy-ness are called upon now to rest.

They are troubled by this pause as it could imply they may no longer be needed. They resist – the body…the mind…the emotions that want to protect and define me.

And yet, a strange and delightful spaciousness coats my experience when I am willing to just sit down and breathe.

It frees them all to not disappear but to serve me better. They become my friends, sipping tea on the deck, holding hands and dancing in the absence of mission and doing.

Oh, the joy of knowing my thoughts, my feelings, my body in the absence of need.

We rest here for a bit together, finding a freshness in how we coexist…

…and then we agree to do this much more often.


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Going the Distance

I feel your heart beating next to mine even though miles away.

I know your moments of pain and sorrow even without hearing you cry.

On the gentle breeze that blows, I encounter great waves of relief, joy, and peace as they ebb and flow in you.

Even out of site I know you are there.

We may be physically distanced, but energetically, emotionally, socially, we are closer than ever before.

Physical distancing,

Social connecting.

Today we may just be closer than ever before.


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On Belonging

It is not discrimination I fear as much as dejection.

Discrimination says because you are different you do not fit in.

Dejection says because I don’t value you, you don’t belong.

We all deserve to feel we belong…and fit in.


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In Every Moment

Love each moment.
That doesn’t mean be comfortable, fulfilled, happy, easy in every moment.
It means LOVE – feel, find, share, know, and be the essence of love – each and every moment.
It is the love that defines the experience…not the moment.


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Dive In

Whether crashing wildly in or softly lapping at the shore, the waves of life continually curl up at my feet.

Today, I choose to dive right in. Tomorrow may require a more easeful entry.

Either way, I feel the tug of the current. Either way, I am there to explore and flow and feel myself as something else, moving with the water as I know I cannot go against it.

Either way I get wet…which delightfully is the purpose in my dance with the waves.


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Here We Are

All is well.

We will never get it all done.

It will not be easy.

It will get messy.

It will not be perfect.

It may get ugly.

We will have fun.

All is well.


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Choices

There is always peace.

There is only joy.

Unless you choose otherwise.

It is always your choice.


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Dependence Day

Today I celebrate my free will and the ability I have to care for myself and live as I choose.

Today I celebrate my dependence.

My dependence on my self.

My dependence on my feelings to be raw, true, and guiding but not ruling.

My dependence on my mind to judge risk, reward, and my ultimate well-being in every decision I make.

My dependence on my body to tell me when I am making good decisions.

My dependence on my judgment and confidence to not always need to control the outcome.

My dependence on my ability to allow you to have your opinion and me to have mine.

Today I will have such great dependence that I will not need to assert my independence.


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Growing with Grace

It’s not in the mistakes that we make where our lessons have value, but in how we recover.

Recovery without backwards glances laced with accusations, excuses or judgment is growth. Growth is the ultimate form of healing.

Healing is recovery made good by grace, love, and kindness.


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Pulsing

Have you ever noticed there is a natural rhythm to the flow of things? When you are in sync with that energetic rhythm there is no resistance – everything flows.

Try to push or pull against the natural flow of your experience and it causes turbulence, imbalance and the potential for unnecessary suffering.

To reduce the discomfort, increase the pause. Slow the looking and the feeling. Sip it in until you can interpret the rhythm.

When I connect with my breath – the rhythmic pattern of inhale and exhale – it shows me the resistance, the tension, and where there may be imbalance. I can chose to ride the breath as it is or invite a shift. Either way, I am getting into the flow, balancing on the crest, and engaging a more comfortable and sustainable way of being.

When I pulse instead of push – on the breath, on sounds, on tastes, on interactions with others, or my experiences – there is a symmetry and unending sense that all is OK.

I exist in the pulse rather than the push.