It was the kind of serendipitous moment that I've almost come to expect during times of impending change. I'd just come from a physical therapy appointment and was waiting for my husband to get his blood pressure checked. As I started to read, I knew, really knew--this was the therapy I actually needed.
For 20 years I had dabbled with meditation and other mindfulness practices, but nothing ever really stuck. I'd read a book and try various practices fairly consistently for a few weeks at a time, but I'd always wander away. The funny thing was, it always did make a difference. I'd feel better for a while, less stressed, more centered, happier, but I'd eventually default to too busy, too tired, too muddled, too overcommitted to add meditation or yoga as one more to-do.
By the time I finished the article, I was starving for the kind of change it described. On the way home I stopped and bought a copy of Full Catastrophe Living, by Jon Kabat-Zinn. By the end of the day I also had signed up for a Mind-Body Medicine class, the prerequisite for the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course profiled in the Time article.
That was six months ago. The book, the class, and the MBSR course that followed have been game changers for me. It has to stick this time. I'm hoping this blog will help me embrace the mindful changes that are gradually inhabiting my life.
