Monday, January 5, we will meet online.
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Dear friends,
This week, we will meet Monday evening, January 5, from 7-8:30PM ET online; Wednesday morning, January 7, from 7-8AM ET in person at our meditation space (3812 Northampton Street NW); Thursday morning, January 8, from 7-8AM ET online; and Friday, January 9, 12-1PM ET online.
On Monday, Ellen will facilitate. Ellen shares:
As we start the new year, I’ve been focusing on breaking the tradition of making well-intentioned resolutions that I quickly forget and then feel as though I’ve failed to achieve. Instead, I have been thinking about how mindfulness helps me grow in ways that nurture the “good seeds” within us all. In particular, I’ve been thinking about “intention.”
Now, I feel a bit of tension here. Mindfulness and our practice is centered on living in the present moment and not the past or the future. For me, it’s not inconsistent to also think about being more intentional and thinking about the specific mindful “seeds” I want to cultivate in the year ahead. get older and plan to retire in a few years from my stressful job, and as my husband retires this week, I can’t help but think about my future.
I heard a meditation talk this weekend that I found very useful. Listeners were asked to imagine and to dream about what they want their life to look like in three and five years. That’s an important time horizon for me. At the same time, I don’t want to make plans or set goals that get me too focused on the future. What I liked about the meditation was the focus on living mindfully and intentionally now to help set us on the path for those dreams and hopes.
The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh has a short piece that speaks to this in a different way—the idea of right path. Thay writes, “You don’t need to arrive at the end of the path in order to be happy. The right path refers to the very concrete ways you live your life in every moment” (104).
Part of Thay’s message is that we should not strive to be “better,” and not to “put an aim” in front of us or we’ll be running all our life and happiness will never be possible. I see that, and I also see the power of mindfulness in helping me be intentional (as compared to setting intentions) to be kind, patient, and a good listener and to be calm, careful, and compassionate in my communications. I want those qualities to be a part of my daily mindfulness practice.
I invite you to consider how you think about being “intentional” in mindful ways if that feels right for you, or how mindfulness helps you be more aware.
Ellen