Awake

The word "mindful" is used in many contexts. The short OED definition is "taking heed or care; giving thought (to)". The path between candid expression of personal truth and mindfulness of the truth of others  is perhaps one form of The Middle Path of Buddhism. If traveled routinely day after day, I believe, this path can bring your life into a joyful state of loving and being loved.

To be mindful, you must be awake. This sounds silly, but it isn't really. So many of us wander through our lives for years half asleep. We are sedated by our conditioned roles in family, by our jobs and by pursuing material things we have been convinced are essential to our happiness. Unquestioning, compliant, we follow each step that we are directed to by parents, teachers and bosses. Some of us find ourselves at the top of a staircase that leads to nowhere. 

Hitting that previously invisible wall often jars us awake. We look around and realize we are lost among the accumulated baggage of our sleepwalking. This crucial time is when many of us start to actually be mindful in our lives in order to find our way back to ourselves.

Psychotherapy is often maligned. It is seen by some as retro, an anachronistic ritual which is inferior to popping a feel-good pill. Unskilled and badly motivated psychotherapists and self-help gurus have done their share to form this public perception. But the process of undergoing critical self-analysis with a concerned and trained person is the basis of many progressive intellectual pursuits. For some, psychotherapy can cut short the somnolent climb or descent on the staircase to nowhere.

Once awakened, the challenge is to remain watchful and mindful. Old habits die hard. A daily practice is the process of staying awake. Establishing a daily routine of self-care and self-development in order to greet the world mindfully in peace and with love is the work of practice. Exercise, proper diet, adequate sleep and meditation/reflection are essential elements of a daily practice to develop joy through mindfulness. As mindfulness takes root, so does openness and education. Living intentionally and healthily with a thirst for understanding inevitably opens a human life to compassion and peace.