Mindfulness underrated

Being mindful is what we should be focusing on these days.

Mindful – to be aware, to live in the moment, not sharing it with another moment or experience. Experiencing it fully and immersing oneself in it.

In this age of technology, we are so caught up in our screens that we have almost forgotten to fully enjoy a moment. Everything needs to be instagrammed… snapped….boomeranged….and in doing so, we tend to focus only on filters and the number of likes or views. That special moment is then forgotten. It now only exists on your wall, to be reminded by the internet a year later, and we smile at how lovely the filter looks. It's now one of the myriad flotsam and jetsam floating away in the sea that is the internet.

My husband says to our kids… “use your eye cameras”. He’s right. It’s so important to have the ability to capture the moment in your mind and make it a memory that you will recall and smile at when you are alone someday without a screen to access your memories. This can come only with mindfulness.

I remember how I once experienced this without even knowing what being mindful meant. Standing on Montagne St. Victoire inhaling and exhaling. I didn’t click any pictures of that iconic mountain. But in my mind’s eye, it’s as clear as now. When I close my eyes, I can feel the warm, fragrant wind caressing my skin, and the sun’s heat pinching my cheeks, forehead, and chin. I remember my orange Doc. Martens- my comfortable companions helping me hike on this mountain whose colours changed from a light gold to a grey to an almost bleached white. I remember the company of my friends, our laughter, and lame French jokes echoing into the wind.

I was mindful.

I was immersed.

I was one with the environment.

‘I’ ceased to exist in that moment.

And now when I recall it time and again, I am able to reexperience it fully.

The memory came back to me as I was flipping through an old book on Impressionism and the same feeling hit me when I saw one of Paul Cezanne’s many renderings of this beauteous mountain. I could see where I stood on that mountain in his painting. In his mindfulness, he had captured the entire experience with his brushstrokes. He had so aptly captured the temperature, the light, the flora, and his mood. My heart raced as my own experience came back to me in vivid detail.

It reminded me that in order to fully appreciate someone or something or a feeling, one needs to be in that headspace of complete awareness of that moment. And because I had experienced the same environment as Cezanne, I understood his mood whilst he painted St. Victoire.

So now, guilty, busy typing away on my laptop while my little Jennah sits next to me telling me in her wittle baby voice “Mooooommmmyyyyy, I waaaaant tooooo huuuug yooooo” I have decided to stop, turn off the laptop and immerse myself in her huge brown eyes and let her laughter wash over me.

Time to make more memories.