Pay Attention to What You are Thinking
Fresh Start , Issue 22

The Law of Mindfulness draws our consciousness to a central choice: we have the power to determine what we focus our attention on. Will it be the half of the glass that is empty or the half of the glass that is full? In that choice lies either suffering or contentment.

The Law of Mindfulness would have us understand the difference between reasons and results. When we don't have what we truly want in life - that is, the results - we usually have a long list of perfectly understandable reasons why. The mindless approach here is to focus again and again on the "reasonable reasons" that things aren't as we would choose.

The Law of Mindfulness suggests another approach. Stop the mindless wishing that things would be different. Rather than wasting time and emotional and spiritual energy in explaining why we don't have what we want, we can start to pursue other ways to get it.

Even our first "baby steps" in the right direction are to be celebrated. Mindfulness says, "I will become aware of my thoughts, I will exercise my power to choose my thoughts, and I will choose thoughts that bring happiness and contentment."….

….Mindfulness means being really present with a hundred simple daily activities. It's an openness to the experience of taking a walk, really listening to the birds, feeling the gravel underfoot, hearing the wind through the pines.
When I am home, my daily walk takes me by a day-care center. Parents bring their kids early, and many youngsters head right for the huge sandbox. It's a joy to spend a moment watching them. The experience of the sand and the shovels and pails is all fresh and new to the children, every day. Mindfulness would have us see that freshness and newness in our own daily life experiences.

Ultimately, we want the mind to become our servant rather than our master. It can become just that as we become aware of our thoughts in the present moment and make simple efforts to choose them.

Choose where you focus and focus on thoughts that nurture. Concentrate on what you have, not what you've lost. You'll see the results in your health and your life.
It's all part of the non-negotiable Law of Mindfulness.

Condensed From:
"The 22 (Non-Negotiable) Laws of Wellness", by Greg Anderson

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