Today is an Auspicious Day –  the 20th of January, 2021.

It is a day that many people all over the world have been counting the days for – keeping our fingers crossed that all will go smoothly and well.
Personally I have been feeling quite tense all week, almost holding my breath. I was actually writing and editing my last article, oblivious to everything else in the world, at the very time that the terrible attack was unfolding at the Capitol Building on 6th, – utterly unaware of what was happening in Washington until I posted the link on some Facebook Groups and found messages saying, ‘so shocked about the events in America.’

How the world so desperately needs new direction. How it so desperately needs more love, oneness, peace and unity at this time.

Reflecting on this, I would like to share my adaptation of five simple but powerful Mindfulness Strategies we can use to improve out day, our week and our life, to keep our  physical, mental, emotional and spiritual balance at a time when there may be quite a lot of fear and anxiety around.
The world is not complicated, it is made up of each one of us. Each and every living thing, plant and animal, offers its consciousness to the overall consciousness of the world….
The more we can feel peace and harmony in our own lives, the more this will feed into the wider consciousness and raise the standard of the world.

Like the strategies I shared in my first article, the five reflections here are not new. Most real wisdom is as old as humanity itself – but we need to remember it and apply it if we are to experience its power. But since each one of us is unique, the way we interpret and express  these truths is also unique, so here is my adaptation of five excellent mindfulness Strategies which you can incorporate into your day, your week and your life.

1) Water. Drink a glass of water as soon as you get up in the morning – and be mindful as you drink it. Hold the glass to the light and appreciate the purity and clarity, the liquidness of it. Move the glass and watch the way the light refracts. (I did this at Christmas, with the Christmas-Tree lights behind the glass. The colours were amazing! There is sooo much beauty in the world… Gratitude!!!)
Feel the hardness of the glass against your lips and the coolness of the water in your mouth. As you swallow notice how it feels as it goes down your throat.
Slow down. Take a moment between sips to breathe more deeply, so that you ‘anchor’ your morning in this peaceful, mindful, moment. Feel a deep sense of gratitude for your life, for the new day, for the life-giving water.

2) Doorways. Be aware of the movement and change that comes from going through a doorway. What are you leaving and what are you entering? Be mindful of that moment. Deliberately focus on this moment of change. Free your mind from expectations or predictions of what the next ‘room’ will be like, of what may be waiting for you. Breathe. Offer Gratitude.
Each new day, as I discussed in my last article about the new year – is an opportunity for a new start. You can think of a new day as a doorway – like today – Inauguration-Day….
In the physical doorway, as you move from one room to the next, or from indoors to outdoors or outdoors to in, if you have time, and if you have the physical capacity to do so, reach up and touch the top of the door-frame.

When it comes to any physical exercises you have to be wise. Each one of us is unique. We need to work from where we are, from our capacity. I remember well one New Year’s Day when both my son and I were keen to build into our day some serious exercise. He found a YouTube video which seemed ideal, so we both started to follow it, standing in his little flat. The first exercise was stretching high, then bending low. I entered into it with enthusiasm – and pulled a muscle or injured something in my back. I spent most of the next week lying down. Bother. That was not the intention. But it was a good lesson.

So stretch up as well as you are able, if at all – and do so gently. Let the exercise help you to know your own level of fitness better and begin small. With any exercise, build up your capacity over weeks. Muscle strength and flexibility improves with practise.

So if you can safely do so, stretch your body up as high as you can reach, then bend down, gently, towards the floor. Twist from side to side a few times. Feel the tension in your body. Stretching and twisting are good for the circulation of lymphatic fluid. (The lymphatic system helps protect us from infection and disease. It is part of the body’s immune system, so this kind of exercise is really important at the moment, with coronavirus at large.) Stretching and twisting also aid digestion and ease any tension in your shoulders and spine – as long as you are gentle, go at your own pace and don’t overdo it.

3) Monday Morning – don’t look back. No regrets of things you wish had been different or wish you had done differently in the days which are falling behind you. Just as you leave a room as you go through a doorway, feel that as you enter into this new week it is something significant, something taking you forward into a new space, offering you new opportunities. Don’t pollute it or corrupt its possibilities with thoughts and fears from the past.

(In the case of America, of course there are lessons to be learned and situations which need to be addressed, but here I am thinking more on a personal level – of how we can move forward each week, acknowledging but letting go of our own past mistakes and regrets so that we can step into the new week unencumbered.
Take a few minutes out of your Monday Morning, not just to be ‘in the moment’ but also to look forward and think where you wish to be headed in your own life, in your family, in your workplace or business.

Plan some things in the coming week that will take you forward towards your future goals and dreams – rather than just letting the demands of each day push you around as you go from one week to the next simply caught in required routines, ‘putting out fires’ directed by circumstances and not taking command of where you are going.
Be conscious. Align each action and each day, each week, with the direction you wish to be following.

4) Lunchtime – Make it a time for refreshment, balancing and recalibrating before the afternoon. Take time. Give yourself space. If possible sit at a table, properly laid for your meal. If possible be in a pleasant, relaxing space and have flowers on the table. Treat yourself as someone special. You are someone special. But even if lunch is simply a sandwich at the desk, you can make it special in your mind.
Remember the power of the phrase, ‘I am enough’ (if you don’t know this, look up Marisa Peer on YouTube – if possible buy – and read her books.)

Relax your mind be self-aware, with thoughts of self-acceptance and self-love. If we don’t love ourselves, feel compassion towards ourselves and forgive ourselves for our  mistakes or shortcomings, then we do not have the emotional strength and stability to offer others our love and compassion. Remember that we learn more from failure than from success.

My spiritual Teacher said that in God’s Eyes, success and failure are equally important. Success encourages us but failure makes us strong. So love yourself and embrace your life, however difficult it is…. Offer gratitude…

The bitterness of failure
And the sweetness of success
Shall find me unswerving
As I climb towards
My summit-goal.
Sri Chinmoy

From the book Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 61

Don’t work on the computer or answer the phone while you eat your lunch. Be present. Be happy to be spending this time with yourself. Look at the food and notice what  items are there and what they look like.

Reflect on where each item comes from, the plants, the sunlight water and air which the plant used to grow and be here for you to eat, the animals and how their lives may have been, the farmers and their lives, all the people and the steps required to bring these items to market, any other people and processes which have been at work to bring it to your table …. that food itself has been on a journey. Offer Gratitude.

The religious tradition of saying Grace before a meal is very significant. You can find traditional prayers from your own culture or religion – or compose your own. Your Grace can just be a moment of silence (I grew up in the Quaker church so that was out tradition.)

Just through writing this, I am feeling that oneness and sacredness I felt when as a family – and especially when joined by friends – we would reach our hands out to whoever was sitting next to us, united around the table and share a long moment of silence and gratitude. My mum or dad would say a simple grace. My dad liked to be irreverent and was a real comic. His favorite Grace was, ‘Heavenly Pa, Ta.’ My great Uncle, born at the end of the 18th Century, lived to be over 100. My mother’s mother’s brother. He would lead us in a Grace he learned in school… in the days of Queen Victoria. It is sung. My sisters and I still love to use this grace and remember the wonderful people who shaped our childhood lives…

‘Now come to your places
With clean hands and faces
And pay great attention to all you are told.
Or else you will never
Be happy and clever
For learning is greater than silver and gold.’
Reflecting on a simple lunch-break is taking me into a land of such sweet memories… Gratitude….

I like to think of gratitude as flowers. We can offer gratitude-flowers to each of the people involved in bringing the food to our table – and to the items of food themselves. We can offer gratitude to all the people who have contributed to making us who we are today…

My culture is Indian. It is our common practise to eat our food with our fingers. I love this extra dimension of senses that this gives to a meal. You feel the texture and temperature of each bite as well as the flavor. But even if you use a fork, be mindful as you put the food in your mouth, notice its texture and temperature. Chew slowly. Savour each bite. Really taste whatever it is you are eating and drinking…. and breathe. Take your time. This is a significant moment in your day. Feel it fully and enjoy it. Offer gratitude.

If your thoughts are racing, keep a paper to hand and note down anything that you think of, so it doesn’t have to stay in your mind. Unload your mind and direct any persistent unhelpful thoughts to your breath, watching the inflow and outflow of the breath. Feeling that the stress or the unhelpful thought is flowing out with each breath you exhale. Relax your body and be aware of your senses, be in the moment, in the Now, as you eat, nourishing mind, emotion and spirit as well as your physical body.

5) Exercise. At some point in the day, go for a walk. Don’t take your phone. Take some time to appreciate being with yourself. Feel the motion of your walking, the way your legs move and swing, the way your feet touch the ground, the flow of your breath. Fill your lungs with air. Notice how it feels as it flows in and out. Offer gratitude.

How DO your feet touch the ground? What part of your foot touches first and how does your weight move? What do your footsteps sound like?

Again be mindful of your senses, what you can see and hear, smell, taste and touch.

Smile broadly – even if you don’t feel so cheerful. If something is worrying you, switch your mind to Gratitude. You can silently repeat Gratitude with each footstep – and play games in your mind to think of something to feel grateful for – even if it is not easy. You can even say GRATITUDE through gritted teeth if you are feeling angry, upset or stressed. Fixing a smile on your face, repeating gratitude… It really works it has the power to change our mood completely. You can use this gratitude and smile exercise at any time, but I especially like to use it with the rhythm of my footsteps – and it has power to change your mood completely. If you need extra power, sing or whistle as you are walking. Music has tremendous positive energy and power….

A friend once asked me, ‘Isn’t it dishonest to repeat gratitude when you are not feeling grateful, and to smile when you don’t feel happy?’ –  But I assured her that it is not dishonest. It may not be true to how you are feeling in that moment, but it is a form of courage, taking action which will lead you out of a situation which is not serving you well – into genuine emotions of smile and genuine gratitude.

Studies have shown that the same part of our brain is active when we feel fear and when we feel gratitude, so really FEEL that gratitude. You can start with the simple word, but focus on it and feel it as strongly as you can. Gratitude for out life, for our strong, warm and supple body, for the amazing world we live in. The more you can practise, the better you will get at it.

It is impossible to feel fear and gratitude at the same time. Your emotion of gratitude can be like a great ocean wave which sweeps all the detritus off the sand, or like an army of positive, powerful soldiers which can defeat and sweep away all the stress and anxiety that has occupied your mind….

So these are my five mindfulness tips for improving your day, your week and your life, sent to you with a virtual hug – on this auspicious day of the inauguration of a new president in America. I pray that we can all stride forward into a new day of hope and happiness. Senator Cory Booker put it beautifully the other night, when interviewed by Stephen Colbert, saying there is a poverty of empathy and we need to join together in a common cause. Joking in response to a jibe about Star Wars and the Jedi, he prayed that ‘we can be one in the Force – and God-Willing may that Force be one of Love for All of Us.’ I echo that prayer and say Amen to that.

Now I will go to YouTube and catch up with all that is unfolding in the outer world. My hopes and prayers are for the ‘Ship’ of America. May she moves slowly and sedately  through this ‘doorway of time’ which is 20th January and out into a future – which, while still beset by some desperate difficulties – can be full of new hope and new promise, under the leadership of it’s new and wise Captain Joe Biden.
I wish him  his administration – and all of my brothers and sisters of America, all the very best, now and for the years to come.

Love and Peace – DurgaMata