 To help see the value of this let's look at the story of Jo and Jae, two friends who lead similar lives. It's a cold, icy and wet Tuesday morning... Jo is woken up by the alarm at 6:50am and looks at the weather, through the window, hits the snooze and goes back to sleep. Jo does this reputedly until 7:30am when it's time to get breakfast. In a hurry Jo spills the tea and in a rush to get in the car accidently drops the keys under the car, in the icy rain! Jo is annoyed with the cold weather and worried about an important meeting at work. On the drive Jo is going too fast, the radio is too loud and Jo nearly hits an elderly person crossing the street. Instead Jo swerves and hit's a bollard. Jo winds down the window to shout at them, unaware of a police officer approaching to give Jo a ticket for dangerous driving! Jae is woken up by the alarm at 6:50am and remembers an intention to meditate. Despite the cold outside Jae sits up straight on the floor, under a blanket, tea steaming in front for 10 minutes, focusing on the sensations of the body and observing the thoughts passing across the mind. Jae feels more centred after this and checks-in by talking out loud and then setting an intention for the day. Today Jae remembers an important meeting and Jae decides to practice calmness in preparation and during the meeting. During breakfast Jae listens to calming music and in the car Jae drives carefully, enjoying the frosty trees and children throwing snowballs. An elderly person is crossing and Jae stops, winds down the window to say hello before driving off and smiling at the nice response. The difference in these two days is clear and it can be attributed to setting an intention the night before to wake up and create space to meditate and check in. This is something I try to do every weekday and I'm starting to open this up to others to join me. If you're interested check here to see if they are ongoing now. The structure I often use is the folliwng:
Finally it's important to get up and move. In the past I have allowed the time boundary to lapse and I can spend an hour reflecting and getting caught up in thinking. Instead make it a practice to stand up and DO SOMETHING. I often do a short stretch and then go get breakfast. I hope this helps you have a more wonderful day. Come join me on my daily Morning Meditation and Check In . 
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Mindfulness is all about being in the NOW. I have created an acronym to help us remember to cultivate our curious and creative state. This is the thing that will turn suffering into life. Pain is inevitable, suffering is a choice. You can be lost in the suffering of your mental anguish - FOMO, guilt, worry, resentment - or you can choose to process these things:
Positively-Mindful is the name of my work because I want us to stay positive with our minds. One of the underlying thoughts here is the question ‘is the root of life, or your self or the creative force or ‘god’ or whatever you want to call it is either…
The old religions of Ancient Greece may have said number 3. The modern scientific take is often B, because the idea of a creator or creative force has been replaced by the idea of a random coincidence of events creating life in the primordial soup on planet earth. I argue the answer is A, because I can sense the love within myself, underneath all the conditioning of mind-made ideas and the ‘survival self’ my human organism has been forced to create in order to survive my teens. Let’s examine a little deeper why it is not B, for me, by looking at the main scientific theory of evolution. Evolution argues all life is connected and emerged from a primordial soup of dead molecules that somehow formed early strands of amino acids that eventually became DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) - the building blocks of all life on Earth. DNA is more complex than a modern smartphone, partly because it is able to replicate itself. Can a smartphone do that? There is code within DNA, which is as impossible to occur naturally or randomly as it would be for the components of a smartphone to occur naturally. It would be like just the right amount of heat and elements coming together to form a plastic rectangular filled with microcircuitry and a screen. Nope - impossible, even with an infinite timeline. Like proteins, the formation of RNA (polymers of nucleotides) requires complex cellular machinery. It simply can’t occur spontaneously. Even with the watchmaker idea evolution doesn’t explain how life emerged and the most plausible definition is actually that a creator is responsible, or that this is all a dream of that creator. It is a fascinating idea and to be honest we don’t need to know the answer but it is vitally important that we continue to wonder! If we stop getting curious we descend into cynicism or arrogance. When we stay open and curious we remain humble, which breeds compassion, love, inspiration, cooperation… all the lovely qualities of human beings that make us thrive. When I ponder this I often feel a surge of inspiration and tears stream down my face. The possibility is that someone or something created me. Are they still watching or are they inside me? Is this life more than just a random occurrence? Could it be a beautiful thing with more meaning than I currently know? If so, what is death and what will happen to me? Wonderful questions! Wonderful feelings. So keep your wonder alive today. As you meditate, ponder the impossibility of life emerging naturally and what that means to you. What is this creative life force within you? Connect to it and enjoy your fabulous and mysterious life, today, right NOW.  |
AuthorsNeil Morbey is a meditation teacher, group facilitator and inspiration guide for Positively-Mindful.com Blog Index
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