happy thursday readers.
today i’m introducing thoughtful thursday which is a weekly series i’ll be posting every thursday. each week i’ll bring a new thought topic that i’ve been pondering or working on throughout the current week. i’ll be sharing these thoughts on social media and here on the blog to discuss and to inspire you to think about implementing them into your life also.
my hope is that you’ll be able to learn more about and apply the topics we talk about in this weekly series to grow your knowledge and skills in whatever we discuss.
this first weeks thoughtful thursday topic is: mindfulness with time.
mindfulness is a word you’re going to see a lot around here. it might be a word that you’ve seen or heard a lot of on social media recently.
mindfullness is: a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment.
or in other words, living in the moment, paying attention on purpose and non judgmentally.
not worried about whats happening in 10 minutes, tomorrow of two months from now.
being present in your life as it is happening.
mindfulness is often associated with meditation or yoga because these practices are calm, quiet and committed to clearing the mind. the stigma that mindfulness is a hippy, tree hugging, buddhist following tradition is completely false.
although the dali lama himself is credited for much of what we know and associate mindfulness with today, mindfulness is something that anyone, anywhere, any religion race and at any phase in their life can start practicing.
in my previous post, mind full or mindful, i explained what mindfulness is.
as a recap (you can click here to re-read that post) mindfulness is allowing your mind to be free from all the distractions that crowd and distract our minds from the things that matter most.
when we’re able to completely clear our mind, the fears, frustrations and distractions that fill our mind every day are able to momentarily disappear. we’re able to breathe without reservation of whats going to happen next.
another word that is often associated with mindfulness is intentional. being intentional means that we are purposefully choosing the thing we fill our life, mind and time with. when we are intentional about the things we surround ourselves with, we feel more connected to and are able to give meaningful attention, emotion and investment to those things.
one thing i choose to be intentional about is the time we spend as a family. between my husband and i currently in the depths of starting our own businesses and brands, my husbands full time job as a commercial real estate agent, our church assignments, children’s school commitments, extra curricular activities and normal life responsibilities, some days there are only MINUTES when we are all awake and together. currently we are in a space where we can’t limit our jobs but we have intentionally limited the actives we do after school and work to be able to spend as much time together. we intentionally leave the tv off, we intentionally do chores together, we intentionally cook dinner together and by doing so we are able to be completely in the moments, present and focused on nothing else except each other.
time is a precious thing. some of us are fortunate to have all 24 hours completely at our disposal while others of us fight for a spare minute just to breathe. time is one way that you can be more mindful.
whatever your circumstance of time is, i challenge you this week to choose one way you can be more mindful and intentional about your time.
maybe thats waking up an extra 30 minutes for personal scripture study or a light read while you sip your coffee. maybe it’s making time for date night. perhaps it’s not looking at your phone before 8am or after 10pm, or not being on your phone while your children are in the room. it can even be something as simple as taking a 10 minute break to step outside and breathe to clear your head.
i hope that you can find someway to be more mindful of your time this week.
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