Dreaming & Mindfulness

​This Week in the Rhema "Christian Yoga" Weekly... 

I remember a time when I was younger, where I would stare out of the window for up to one hour without moving.  I was absorbed in the view and the show outside. 

The green color of the grass, the birds singing and flying around.  Even the dog next door!  At the time, my parents assumed I was daydreaming of castles and dragons.  To be fair, I often did, so I can't blame them for drawing that conclusion.

But in truth, my form of daydreaming was to be present and mindful of all of the life going on around me.

Having been through different yoga trainings and retreats, as well as three years of ministry school, I've done quite a few mindfulness exercises.   Often they work for a short time, and then they don't... and then they do again... sometimes they only work to stress me out!

It was only recently that I remembered that time when I was a kid, dreaming mindfully out of the window for hours on end.

Why did I stop?  Well, I have a feeling that it had a lot to do with authority figures telling me not to daydream, to pay attention, and that only little kids daydream.

But here's the thing, being mindful doesn't have to be stressful.

It doesn't have to be a "thing" you do.  It can, and maybe it should, just look like you staring out the window, enjoying the view.