Mindfulness and Lent

I am teaching a class this semester entitled, Mindfulness and Pastoral Care. As we have delved into the subject, students and teacher alike, began to discover some great benefits. Last week we sat with a mindfulness instructor to learn even more. What a great experience.

I have learned that my biggest block to mindfulness meditation is the inability to be gracious to myself. I realized that I spend too much time chastising myself about my improper techniques instead of just being aware.

Lent is a great time to practice mindfulness, the ability to be aware of one's surroundings, to be present to now. With the practice of prayer, almsgiving, and fasting, we're called to be present in ways that typically slip by us. Mindfulness and Lent have opened me to NOW in a new way; in a way that says it's okay to BE. Being helps center me for doing.

As I continue my mindfulness practices and walk with my students through theirs, I pray that we move away from our critical nature of finding fault and sit in the peacefulness of being.