I’m always on the move. everywhere, all the time. I am the definition of a “busy body”, as my mother calls me. Though it is exciting, it can be stressful, often leaving me disorganized, anxious and stressed. Fortunately, a class that I took this past semester, a life changing class I may add, taught me the importance of mindfulness. Mindfulness has helped me with always feeling a million places at once and forces me to, every once in a while. be still and at peace.

Mindfulness can be easiest described as purposeful awareness, as opposed to habitual awareness. With so many things in life we simply go through the motions, like robots. Our brain is thinking about a million things other than the task at hand or what is in front of us. For example, how mindful are we when we wash our hands? The average person, probably not so much. Just water, soap, lather, dry. Possibly while looking in the mirror or thinking of the next thing they will do once they leave the bathroom. A mindful person, however, will only be present in the moment and their focus will only be on washing his or her hands. They will notice the way the soap feels on their hands. They will be appreciative for running water, and be grateful that they have a choice between hot and cold running water, where as so many people in the world do not have access to running water at all.

Mindfulness has brought many benefits to my life. First off, mindfulness has brought more happiness. The smallest things can make me happy now. I wouldn’t even call them small things, more so things that I once took for granted but now take the time to appreciate and find happiness in. For example, I used to despise road trips. Really, I used to hate driving any time period over 30 minutes. However, now, they make me so happy due to the fact that I attempt to be as mindful as possible during long drives. First and foremost, I am mindful and thankful that I am a car owner. I drive a stick shift, so I’m mindful as to how cool that is and how fun it is to drive! Also, the scenery while driving! Everything around me! The green, the bodies of water, the way the color of the sky changes depending on the time of day; it is all so beautiful and makes me realize how small and almost how insignificant I am in comparison to the beauty and magnificence around me. This makes a 2 and a half hour drive nothing close to boring and the most enjoyable. I remember recently, I was being mindful of the sky as I was driving, and watched the sunset in front of me and it bought me to tears of happiness. Without mindfulness, I would always be habitually driving like a robot with my mind in a million places and just miserable, wanting nothing else but to be at my destination.

Mindfulness, for me anyways, also promotes self-improvement. During times of meditation, and times alone, it has the ability to make me more in tune with myself, thus, bringing me to realizations of areas where growth is needed. A plethora of things affecting my mental health and happiness come to surface in times of self-mindfulness. One, for example, are grudges and not granting forgiveness. After I realized this to be an issue, and came to closure with situations hindering my growth, I immediately saw a change in my well-being and happiness. It was hard for me to be in tune with myself due to business serving as a distraction. I would not have been able to notice and address these suppressed issues if it were not for me forcing myself to be still and mindful of my current state.

In terms of meditation, it takes a lot of practice to keep your mind so still, especially when you have a mind like mine that moves 100 mph. However, I have an alarm set to dedicate 10 minutes to work at it everyday, forcing me to slow down and to enjoy and focus on nothing else but the present moment and my breathing. I really touched on just a couple of ways in which mindfulness has impacted my life positively, however, the impacts are infinite. Experiences and effects of course vary by person, but your mind is such a powerful thing. Utilize it!