Mindful to Mind-FULL-ness - Part 1/? (as there's so much...I'm stuffed!)

After-Party(11/6), After-Math(11/19), Day After(11/25) - A New Day: I woke up early, with a 'start' -- to start this post, that is. Still feeling thankful as I expressed here yesterday (well, two days ago now, allowing for proper digestion)...whenever, wherever, however this finds you (stuffed to the max, in line/online shopping), following 'the day after' of mass consumption for some and the 'day of' for others, still overflowing with things to be grateful for, including the great meal, company, conversation we enjoyed, whether in person or from a distance (the latter not just due to COVID, but other circumstances...being thankful we have the means to do so, to video chat and such, like we saw at "Tomorrowland" at Disneyworld many iphone iterations ago, remarking off hand, "Yeah, right..."). Anyway, I woke in a state of 'semi-euphoria', owing in part to my awareness there is still turkey aplenty in the fridge, enough for sandwiches, soup, and...(for many of you the favored part over the actual feast)...and a couple of pieces of pie that somehow escaped my attention. These morsels, as well as plenty of leftover thoughts that, similar to the remnants in the fridge, reside in my mind, posts aplenty, a Mind-Full. A play on words, of course, a turn of a phrase that you have perhaps grown accustomed to here (depending on the frequency of your visits with me). Timely, I think. Seasonal. Relevant this day and the next...

Variations on a Meme: Or, if you prefer, a 'merry mash-up of metaphors, mantras', or, finally and simply, (re)-iterations...on the now ubiquitous, omnipresent, endemic even...preaching and practicing both the art and science, eventually acknowledged by many psychologists as a discipline ("...which warns you against digging into the mind...lets the mind unwind and settle down naturally" 😌). Of which, so many articles, books, pod casts, lectures, seminars, retreats, advocates have arisen that there is neither the time nor the space here to list them, their various iterations on this theme. That of "Mindfulness", what else?...

All Well and Good, Mind, Body...Mindfulness: "...Is a state of active, open attention to the present...observing one's thoughts and feelings without judging them as bad😈 or good😇...live in the moment and reawaken oneself to the present, rather than dwelling on the past or even anticipating the future...to be mindful is to observe and label thoughts, feelings, sensations in the body objectively...a tool to avoid self-criticism and judgement while identifying and managing difficult emotions..." Yep, all this and more; I've hardly touched the surface of phrases, definitions, descriptions of the 'underlying' as well as more 'lofty' tenets of this trend which has been both time tested and found its way into cross-training...

Best of Both Worlds? For Mindfulness, while rooted in Buddhist and Hindu teachings, slowly crept its way into Western culture in the early 70's (perhaps with a "Little Help from My Friends", the Beatles)...and eventually accepted, incorporated (co-opted?) into mainstream psychotherapies here (U.S., other Western regions), at least tacitly acknowledged by some Judeo-Christian traditions, practices reflected, for example, by a recent (2015) article in "Christian Today", which listed ten reasons why it's (Mindfulness) not antithetical to their theology nor practice: "...God-given universal capacity for awareness and attention...it's what you do with it that's counts..."

Across, Cross the Great Divide, Cross Train: In addition to crossing the span of seas, we around these parts have also witnessed and maybe even directly experienced the numerous iterations (of Mindfulness) and incorporations, into now countless profiles, postures, poses...tools of the trade made available to ALL😊, many times at NO COST😄, at least for the introduction, to whet your appetite, leave you wanting more😔...but suffice to say, there's now a WHOLE range of options and variations of this art and practice, that there's hardly any excuse left for us not to at least sample what THEY, the Mindful among us, have to offer...from the many apps on how/what to meditate on, to the variations of yoga, there's one that's just the right fit for your 'mindset' as well as your body type. As for me, it was challenging enough, took a meditative state itself for me to learn the correct pronunciation of the various forms of yoga ("can I please buy a vowel?"), let alone getting into the form itself, given that I have never quite mastered crossing my legs that way...OUCH! 

       Okay then, so much for mindfulness, which is all well and good, for those who bother to take the time to simply engage their minds and bodies in the simplest of ways (some yoga poses notwith'standing'), both of which I've about had my fill. How about crossing over into another concept important to our well-being, that of Mind - Full, which itself should have broad appeal and application...NEXT.