It’s been quite the ride this past eight weeks, has it not?!

A lot of times it feels surreal, like being in a movie, except this is real life.

I’ve shared with you before, the metaphor of life being like a movie. We are all characters and this time around, it’s a large cast. Everyone in the world is in this movie.

We are watching this COVID-19 movie play out, with no idea how long this movie is going to be or if there will be a sequel.

The Universe may have written the script, but we are the Directors and can choose how our character in the movie responds.

This is free will, and this is where our mindfulness practice comes in.

When we are practicing mindfulness, we are not in our movie anymore, we are watching our movie. We are observing how we feel, our surroundings, other characters. We are responding rather than reacting.

For me, this virus is so much more than a virus. There is a much bigger picture playing out; this has been and continues to be an incredible opportunity for deep spiritual growth. In truth, everything is.

Continuing to build our mindfulness practice provides us with the necessary tools and skill set to spend more time in this observer role, to be open to growing and learning from challenging circumstances.

As always, keep in my this is practice, not perfection.

This past week I had more thoughts than usual and most of my meditations were much busier than usual. I was ok with that.

I allowed the thoughts to come and go. I practiced observing the thoughts with objectivity and kindness, and at some point, my mind quieted down.

There is a sense of freedom knowing thoughts need not control me.

This is the journey of self-discovery: to be continually given choices and opportunities for growth. To unpeel the layers and rediscover the truth of who we are on a moment to moment basis.

As I talked about last week, resiliency builds when we have the courage and willingness to be present with what is. The more we embrace this as a way of being, the greater our capacity to objectively observe thoughts, feelings, our reality, our movie.

This is what mindfulness looks like for me - a moment to moment practice of being with what is here right now.

The truth is – we are not creating our thoughts.

I have no idea what my next thought is going to be right now, and neither do you.
Thoughts come spontaneously through our consciousness. The quality of our thoughts is impacted by our conditioning and life experiences, this is true. But we are not the ultimate creator.

When we take ownership and identify a thought as ‘my thought’, in that moment we have forgotten who we are. We might judge our thought or try and push it away which only creates more tension in the mind and keeps us stuck and at the mercy of each thought.

We may go in and out of being aware throughout our day, our mindfulness practice allows us to keep coming back home to this moment.

We can’t control:

what our next thought is going to be
how other people or characters in our movie will react
how long we are in lock down.

We can:

observe our thoughts
choose self-care
meet ourselves where we are with kindness and compassion
build a resiliency which enables us to trust, adapt and grow.

To be able to let go of what we can’t control, this is true freedom. This is what I wish for each of you.

Be well,
Diane