What I love about mindfulness is that it opens up possibilities. I’ve become very wary of people trying to sell me ‘the solution’ to anything. There is no one size fits all. I also don’t think there’s an actual endpoint in this life (apart from the finality of death perhaps). Life is a journey of ups and downs, of happiness and sadness, of struggles and ease of passage, of togetherness and loneliness, of losses and wins, of hopes anew and hopes shattered. It’s rarely ever just one. It’s usually a seesaw moving from one end of the spectrum to the other. 

For me mindfulness is the awareness of the seesaw movement – up and down, being present and experiencing both ends of the seesaw spectrum. Allowing yourself to feel and be. 

We live in a world that is focused on masking. Pretending we are something we are not. Covering our wounds, scars and emotions. Numbing all experiences. Sometimes with bandaids that don’t last very long and never fully contribute to healing. Sometimes with more permanent weights that push what we experience down into the deep, dark depths of never letting anything come to the fore. In a reductionist world with a focus on instant gratification, this isn’t surprising. A quick fix to a symptom is cheaper and easier to apply than peeling off the layers.

Mindfulness is not an endpoint. It’s a journey. Of curiosity. Of asking questions. Of sitting with those questions. Of becoming aware of what is happening inside and outside of you. It can be disconcerting when things unravel. My invitation is to stick with it. Be with it. Be kind towards it and yourself. 

Mindfulness is not ‘the solution’. It is a way of being, with frameworks and approaches that, when used collectively, based on and adapted to your needs and circumstances, and applied over time, may affect change, if you are willing. 

What that change looks like is individual. I cannot prescribe that. I wouldn’t want to. It’s not for everyone. But maybe it’s what you’re looking for, in this moment. 

This isn’t a long post. These are just some of May’s thoughts on a sunny Sunday morning, that might get you curious. It all starts with a little bit of curiosity. Maybe get back in touch with that 2 year old self that asked a lot of ‘why?’. It might start a journey for you. 

This blog was first published by May on 13th November 2022 on a different website, which is now no longer in use by the author.