What would it look like, if we learned to be truly present in all of life, including when we suffer?
Being 'present' in the moment, displaying grace and compassion in letting myself and others be where they're at, living life mindfully. Over the past few months this topic, theme, and thought, has weaved itself through my life. I have found myself considering these things in a variety of situations and experiences.
My younger sister first introduced me to The Slow Movement over a year ago and I have become increasingly interested in this movement which encourages a more mindful life. Mindfulness, as described on The Slow Movement website, "is a Buddhist concept that can be best described as awareness. Awareness of everything, awareness of our senses, our body, our mind."
Jon Kabat-Zinn, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School believes that “Mindfulness is a certain way of paying attention that is healing, that is restorative, that is reminding you of who you actually are so that you don’t wind up getting entrained into being a human doing rather than a human being.” It opens up new dimensions of well-being and integrity, of wisdom and compassion and kindness in ourself.
This concept is also present in one of my favourite books 'Let Your Life Speak' by Parker Palmer, a Quaker. Through the sharing of, primarily, his own life story, Palmer shares great insight into the importance of getting to know oneself through living a mindful life. He implores the reader not to be dictated to by the expectations of others or self; acting out of a knowledge, relationship and compassion for yourself in choosing the decisions you make and actions you take. There is a Hasidic tale, Palmer tells, that reveals, with amazing brevity, both the universal tendency to want to be someone else (whether that be Buddha, Jesus, Moses, Mandela, Ghandi or anyone else) and the ultimate importance of becoming one's self:
Rabbi Zusya, when he was an old man, said, "In the coming world, they will not ask me: 'Why were you not Moses?' They will ask me: 'Why were you not Zusya?'"
So what role does mindfulness play in the experience of suffering?
Jesus talked about 'Living life to the fullest'. I believe an attitude of mindfulness in all of life enables a person to get the most out of this life that we have been given. That includes during times of suffering.
I'm a highly emotional person, I experience the whole width and breadth of emotion. I have, as a result, felt at times, that I suffer more than others, because I really feel emotional pain. Whether that is true or not, I wouldn't change it. My experience of life is bigger because of it.
Wouldn't it be great if we could see suffering like that? To truly embrace our suffering as way of experiencing the whole of what life has to offer?
No matter how much we try, we can't avoid suffering - so why treat it as a disruption to life and therefore cause it to be one?
As a result of a car accident last year, I have been forced to stop working, to stop my involvement in many things and to slow down. At times I have heard myself saying how "I wish I could just feel better". I have seen the suffering I have been, and am, experiencing as an interuption to my life. However, over time, I am discovering a sense of peace, joy and healing that comes with living a slower, more mindful life. I am learning to live a life of becoming more and more myself, where I take time to slow down, to observe and be aware, to 'sit with' what I am feeling physically and emotionally, instead of running away from these things, ignoring them, or being controlled by them.
This Christmas time, as the world seems to speed up and get so much busier, I encourage you to take the time to slow down, explore and consider if and how you might live a more mindful life.
