Musings from the Ozone

Strange word?  Mindfulness.  It means to be aware, as in actively attentive, or deliberately keeping something in mind.  It cannot be that your mind is full of something, as in carefulness, where you could say you were 'full of care.'  No, to be mindful of something is to be careful or focused on something.  It is a word that expresses our thoughts! 

 The great Aristotle said, "We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."He also said, "Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit.  We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts." 

One premise of this discourse is  that mindfulness must be developed as a habit in order to be consistently attentive  to one's goals.  In this day and age, people can be very 'scatter-brained' without meaning to be so.  There seem to be so many priorities, how can one possibly focus on each and every activity or task that comes their way?  

Personally, I am reminded that even as I started to write this, the little ding from the e-mail account went off many times, and I felt compelled to check the e-mail, even though it rendered nothing important.  How does one focus or become mindful of what is truly a priority?  Before I tackle that question, I must state that what may be a priority for you, is not necessarily a priority of mine. 

There are upsetting times in our lives which force us to get introspective.  We don't have to wait for such painful times such as death, job losses, family break-ups, moves, etc., to ponder our life style.  In fact, it would be better to be prepared for all eventualities.  But, apart from those times when fate dictates our moves, we must develop a mindfulness about our priorities.  Put that goal up in front of your face again.  Do you want to go back to school and finish that degree?  Then you must do daily the activities that will focus on fulfilling that goal.   Do you want to become a more spiritual and Godly person?  You must do the things that will keep your mind centered on God.  Do you want to have better family relationships?  Even such small things as eating meals together will improve the quality of the home life.  Even though, many of our parents did not attend college, or even finish high school, one must admit that they knew the importance of a good home life and worked daily at the responsibilities required to maintain a happy home. 

 If we will set goals in our lives, we will live in such a way that we will eventually attain them.  People who do not have a goal, find themselves floating around in the sea of mindlessness.  Even young people should start forming solid goals early in their lives.   Having a goal, actually makes life easier.  One will realize immediately that they cannot watch non-stop TV, play video games for hours, talk on the telephone for hours, or do any activity that keeps them from reaching the prize.  While I was enrolled in college, I soon found that my social life began to take a back seat to nights of studying and reading.   I just couldn't  keep up with the housework and cooking like I had done for years on end.  Something has to give, in order to stay mindful of your goal.  Goals change throughout life, but we must always keep something as a goal, in order to stay mindful.

 I concur with Aristotle that  we are what we repeatedly do.  My studying became a habit, and by my 5th year in college, I was not stressed out as much as I was in that first year, when my studying had not become the engrained habit.