New year's warning

• Want to be more present?
• Want to have more focus?
• Want more clarity in your life?

Mindfulness meditation is being advertised as the way to get there. And the New Year vibe can boost enthusiasm. But an enthusiastic start to a journey can peter out if you don’t know what’s ahead of you.

So, here’s something important about what to expect. Having a kind of caveat ahead of time could help boost your ability to stay with it if things get rough in 2025.

There’s something you should know before embarking on a new journey of mindfulness…

It works, but there’s a side effect.

It works if you do it. You do get more present, you do get more focused, and you do see more clearly.

And then… there’s a side effect.
There’s a side effect to all that presence, focus and clarity: you become more intimate with the truth of your life experiences. There’s a vulnerability that comes with being here. Since it’s not always pleasant, we humans sometimes hide from that which is right in front of us. And mindfulness practice is one of the practices of un-hiding.

Un-hiding?
The notion can seem complex at first. Mindfulness is not a direct line to happiness or even stress reduction, really. Mindfulness is instead a practice of un-hiding from what’s here. It might (or might not) lead to happiness eventually, but it does lead to wholesomeness, hardiness, and self-understanding. It takes some courage to befriend the intimacy and vulnerability of it.

So that’s your warning.

But, hopefully it’s also an enticement.

There are quite a lot of benefits to stabilizing where you stand. The coming year is likely to have upheavals and twists. The advertisers and truth-benders are getting more savvy and more loud. There will be a lot to distract our focuses.

So, if you would like to try out, or re-engage with, the practice of mindfulness, the studio is here for you. Belonging to, and even commiserating with, a studio of fellow practitioners is invaluable.

The broadcasting media component to this studio is a radio station.
There’s also a phone app.

Please tune in at any time.

And also, share this idea with your friends.