Mindfulness brings our attention to this moment. Mindfulness invites us to be extremely present. Here we find more choices in what we think, say, and want to do. Mindfulness invites us to take responsibility. How we think is how life reflects back to us, rich or poor, lonely or in love, doors opening or closed. Mindfulness is remembering the power of our thoughts and the beauty of no thought. Mindfulness brings us to the nature of our mind itself, the river of our thoughts. Mindfulness and here we are.
Each of us is an unwritten book. We think our past is so full, this page already so complete, that the future must be predetermined. We think everything will continue more or less the same. But with mindfulness, everything beginning now is open. The next paragraph is blank. The rest of this page and the next page are blank. All the chapters to come in our life are in fact blank. Of course there is a course set, a groove made, a path that has brought us to this moment. But after mindfulness there is another life before us. This new life is from our heart, from our ground of being.
Life from our heart, our ground of being, gives us an anchor to change every moment from here on. Until now our ground, our anchor has been our home, family, work, the activities that are important to us. Our connection to the people, work, and things in our daily world determine the thoughts and choices we are making. As the important things in our world change, we change. As love opens and closes, work begins and ends, our activities take off or stop, our identity, who we are, changes. Mindfulness gives us clarity on all these things. We see our thoughts for what they are, where they are coming from, and where they are leading us. We want to change tracks, get off this track, begin a new track. Mindfulness, we see the possibilities. The new beginning, a fresh start is when our awareness is absorbed in heartfulness.
This is where the new adventure begins. Mindfulness brings us to clearly see what is in our awareness. The clutter is right in front of us, bold, loud, the elephant, giraffe, and everything else in our crowded psyche. Now how do we become free of the clutter floating down the beautiful river of our awareness? How do we become free of all the thoughts piled in the room of our mind shaping the same old experiences? How do we begin now, fresh, and new?
Actually the clutter is not so important. What is important is the space between the clutter floating in our awareness. Explore this space and a new life is within view! With practice, in our meditation, the small space between thoughts grows. We find our awareness in a vast space. Mindfulness brings us to watching the show. Now it is time to go through the show and find the stage clear without all the actors and the drama. Now is the time to find the vastness of the stage of life that is in each of us.
This is where heartfulness begins. From thinking to feeling, from mindfulness to heartfulness, we feel the depths of the gentleness of our heart. Through the open space, between our busy thoughts, we feel our well of being. Mindfulness has brought us to the clarity of seeing. Under the noisy chatter, there is a well of peace inside of us. Our practice is our awareness receiving like a sponge the simple peace within. Instead of watching our thoughts, we are receiving. Instead of judging or analyzing, we are soaking in our depths of being. We are exploring our heart, discovering our ground of being, our true inner treasure.
Mindfulness has brought us to heartfulness, which is our true ground of being. This ground is not who we are in this world. It is not in what we do. It is not in what we have. It is not the story line of our day. We are more than our thoughts. There is a vast presence in each of us. This vastness is grounded in our heart. Our ground of being is the qualities of heart we find underneath, in between, on the other side of our mental traffic. Our ground is a vastness, an emptiness which when received is peace, love, light. There are many qualities to the soul in each of us. GPS for the Soul is taking the steps from mindfulness to heartfulness and our true ground of being!
To empty the room of our old life, to find the empty page to begin again, we find silence. We make a retreat. In peace and quiet, we find inner stillness. In this inner stillness is the ground that can become an anchor to our awareness. Our ground of being is full of rich minerals, our golden essence, diamond clarity, jewels of understanding, the plain dirt of truth where anything and everything in life can grow. The light of our awareness comes into our ground of being. Here everything good is present and possible. Mindfulness has brought us to see the thoughts occupying our awareness. Stepping into heartfulness our thoughts slow down. Stepping further into our ground of being there are no thoughts. Here there is another form of intelligence, heart full knowing, sheltered awareness, a lightness of being. Our ground of being is innocence. An infinite inner treasure is unveiling.
Life is very different when our thoughts are no longer reacting and ruling our world. Awareness anchored in our truth, our ground of being is life from within, born out of our own passion, wholeness, and beauty. Thoughts and feelings originate from our creative center. Our awareness rooted inside of us can change this chapter and every chapter to follow. Living from our inner treasure, the book of our life is very different. There is less story and more life itself. Our book is less drama and more simple joy. Each page is less black-and-white and more color. We are not just watching the adventure. We are making the adventure with all the richness and potentiality of our heart!
For more by Bruce Davis, Ph.D., click here.
For more on emotional wellness, click here.