Aaron Engelsrud

I’ll be honest; I’m struggling to make mindfulness the priority that it needs to be. While I am continuing to get time each day to focus on meditation, it’s often last-minute or as I get time. This is not how I want this to be, nor was is it my intention when I started working on this practice. Given this, I need to make a change. I want this to be a priority and a part of my day that I look forward to, get up early for, and something in which I find value. I believe that morning is the best time for me to find the quiet I need to be successful, and therefore I need to find a way to ensure that I get up and be present.

Moving from meditation and mindfulness being just another task that needs to be completed to an opportunity for peace and clarity can be a shift in mindset that makes the practice much better. Learning to appreciate the time you can spend in meditation, allowing thoughts to come and go, and finding the blue sky beyond the clouds is an essential part of the journey. I am working to both find the time to complete the task and appreciate the time I have when I have it.

Taking the time to learn and practice mindfulness is teaching me so much about myself. I’m learning how impatient I’ve been in my life, how little attention I pay to the essential things in life, and how much attention I pay to inconsequential things. Even though I get out of bed every morning and start my day, I spend much of the day asleep, unaware of what I am doing or why I am doing it. Mindfulness helps you live each day as if you are awake for it rather than sleeping through it. You can focus on the moment at hand rather than all of the moments to come.

“Only that day dawns to which we are awake.” - Henry David Thoreau

How many times have you missed a crucial moment unintentionally? For example, you took the time to go to your son’s baseball game but then failed to see his great defensive play at first base because your attention was on your phone or in a book or talking to another parent. If you are anything like me, this happens far too often. It’s innocent and not intentional, but the fact remains that you missed an opportunity to share in the excitement because you were not present in the moment. Mindfulness helps bring you back to the present and stay there, focused on what you are doing, not everything else. Being present makes your moments more meaningful and your presence more powerful.

The purpose of mindfulness is not to empty your mind of all thoughts and somehow find peace in your emptiness. Instead, the purpose of mindfulness is to be with your thoughts, allow them to come and pass by, acknowledging them, and returning to your home base without becoming attached to your ideas. There is a difference between these two and finding that difference is one of keys to finding utility in the practice.

An essential aspect of my mindfulness practice is to improve myself for the benefit of those I love. For my wife, I’m working to be a better husband. I want to be more patient, compassionate, and present in the things we are doing. For my kids, I’m working to be a better father. I want to be more present in what they are doing and be a better role model for living a meaningful life. For my coworkers, I want to be someone they can trust and a good friend. Each day during meditation, I focus on these people and hope to become a better version of myself.