Excerpt
from The Mindful Woman: Gentle Practices for Restoring Calm, Finding Balance, and Opening Your Heart
by Sue Thoele
Busy Women Can Be Mindful Too
Because women possess an innate ability to perceive an expanded range of feelings, thoughts, and experiences, we are adept at consciously
handling several things at once. That doesn't mean you don't get
frazzled and frustrated. It does mean you can feel even better and more
productive by attentively, purposely, and nonjudgmentally staying in
the present moment. Having qualities such as diffuse awareness and
sensitivity means you already possess excellent tools for creating a
more peaceful, loving, and mindful life. With awareness and intention,
you can be mindful within
your busyness -- the caveat being that busyness needs to be comfortable
and enjoyable, not a fear-based busyness. We'll explore both forms of
busyness in various practices throughout the book.
Intention as Ally
Your
thoughts and intentions announce your deepest wishes, desires, and
goals to your subconscious mind, or inner sage, whose job it is to
bring you more of what you project. It's great to have so willing a
friend as long as your thoughts are positive and your intentions are
set consciously. So often, however, they are neither. Many of our
thoughts and intentions reflect deep-seated fears, unhealthy beliefs,
and intolerances. For instance, if we fear we're not up to snuff in our
job and think, "Good grief, how dense can I be?!" or "I'm never going
to be able to learn all this!" sure enough, our brain, mind, and
subconscious centers will obligingly provide what we ordered --
feelings of inadequacy and stupidity. And, of course, such feelings
make it hard for us to concentrate and keep us from learning as quickly
and easily as we could if we were free from fear. Or, if we believe
we're being treated unfairly, gnaw on feelings of being cheated, and
long for revenge, once again the inner sage will obligingly present
matching experiences and feelings.
Luckily, thoughts and
intentions are equal-opportunity magnets. Actually, I choose to believe
they are tipped ever so slightly toward the love and joy side of the
equation. Yes, we can attract negatives, but our benevolent inner
universe really seems to want to give us the good stuff more than it
does the difficult. Consequently, thoughts of love, tolerance,
acceptance, and general goodwill combined with conscious, positive
intentions draw more good to us than we can even imagine. On the other
hand, unhealthy, fear-based thoughts and intentions draw to us more of
the same. Henry Ford was right when he said, "Whether we think we can
or think we can't, we're right."
It's important to know that
your subconscious mind is extremely literal and unable to discern
between "true" and "false," "good" and "bad," or "positive" and
"negative." What you say, believe, think, fear, and assume, the
subconscious will do its darnedest to provide. The wonderful news is
that knowing the nature of your inner sage gives you the understanding
and ability to use the power of positive to mindfully set
life-enhancing intentions that unerringly help you become a magnet for
your desired results.
Intentions can be both expansive and
minute. You can set far-reaching intentions, such as "My intention is
to be a mindful woman," or intentions for the moment like, "My
intention is to pay absolute attention to my next four breaths."
Expansive: My intention is to become more loving.
Minute: I choose to respond (or stay silent) lovingly toward ________ right now.
Expansive: My intention is to be a healthy weight for my body type.
Minute: I am choosing to forgo this piece of candy right now.
Intention
is an invaluable ally on your journey toward increased mindfulness. One
small step that can make a huge difference is to set an intention each
morning before you are off and running. I might say, "Today I will be
consistently kind." A favorite intention or affirmation if I'm worried
about someone I love is "I place _______ in the arms of angels today
and know that she or he is loved and protected."
Intentions
are like personal angels who set our course and light the way to where
we want to go and how we want to be in our lives, loves, and attitudes.
Of course, because we're human beings, we'll fall short of our
intentions time and again. When we do, it's important that we take an
accepting, angelic approach and love ourselves back into alignment.
Gentle correction is much more effective than criticism and judgment.
Copyright © 2008 Sue Patton Theole