Sunday, February 19, 2012

Mindful

Sometimes when you're figuring things out in life - for better or for worse - you hear things repeated over and over.
There are a couple I keep hearing: set and intention and be mindful.
I like both - and I do both. But, lately I've been thinking about the mindful one.
I'll go as far as to say this - I think hearing the phrase "be mindful" is one of the best pieces of advice I've heard in a long time. In fact, it's probably the best advice for me.
Here's the thing. I'm an all in kind of person. We all know this. Being that kind of person can work really well for me. Throw me a hard project I'll be completely invested in it. But throw me a life challenge? This can be a blessing and a curse.
The past couple of months has been about health. Yes. I did really well losing weight last year, but now what. I started thinking that maybe some of the choices I made to lose weight didn't exactly contribute to being the healthiest person ever. For instance, it's fantastic to figure out that a 2pm coffee prevents me from a 2pm cupcake. However ... maybe I should be considering an herbal tea. Right?
So, being mindful to me is being aware. Am I going to beat myself up for having more caffeine? Nope. But, I'll be aware. Will I have an extra glass of wine or drink a vodka soda? Of course. But, instead of just doing it, I'm going to throw a little more thought toward my action.
Lately the thing I'm being really mindful of is food. I read the book Crazy Sexy Diet. I'm not going vegan (read: trying to not go overboard here) but really the more I read, the more attention I'm putting on my food.
Mindful.
And also a little tired.