awareness

Hello from guest blogger, Lisa Robinson!  This post presents more reflections and observations from my experience in the program in the book “Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World” by Mark Williams and Danny Penman @DrDannyPenman. Last week, the meditation was a body scan that helped me place my focus on each area of the body, notice anything I was feeling, and then let it go.  Although the intention was to do this meditation while lying down on the floor or a bed, I found myself doing it on most week days while sitting in my office chair at work.  To my pleasant surprise, afterwards I felt remarkably refreshed, with my thoughts positive and clear. The mindfulness book makes the point that mindfulness “is about reorienting your life, so you can enjoy it to the full” (p. 116).  Something you can do to experience part of this reorientation is to do the ten-finger gratitude exercise:On a daily basis, stop to think of ten things you are grateful for, and count them off on your fingers. This is simple, yet can be very meaningful.  One of my ten things happened this morning as I was driving to work.  It was still quite early, and there wasn’t much traffic on the city streets that make up my short commute.  As I signaled to turn down the street that leads to my parking area, a small rabbit began crossing