Beauty is in all the small things ...

My beautiful dad gifted me a camera for Christmas.  One of those 'real' cameras that so many of us forget about with our iphones these days!  I've had one on my 'wish list' for ages, feeling a desire to truly 'capture the light' in all the small things.  Yesterday afternoon, I went for a very slow wander around my local streets, and just noticed all the small things, the tiny things, the beautiful things - and came home with photos of many so-called ordinary moments, but extraordinary when you really choose to see the light.    

I have loved mindfulness for such a long time.  Not just because I teach mindfulness, but because it always, without fail, brings me back to what's truly important, even in some of the darkest times, and reminds me of the light that resides in all the small, simple and precious things. The gift of our presence within each and every moment.  

It sounds so simple when I write it like this.  But to me, mindfulness has become very simple and an everyday practice.  I know it's not easy to practice mindfulness or to even understand at times, how it can help.  But over time, I have found mindfulness to be one of the deepest ways, and so profound in my own healing journey. 

I came home with so many photos of ordinary moments, all the tiny things we take for granted, that are often just right in front of us, and we are too busy or distracted or just not choosing to see what's important, or willing to perhaps.   

This is what mindfulness is and means to me.  And how I like to explain it in a simple and supportive way, for others.  It's bringing ourselves back to what is right in front of us, in this present moment, with our presence.  To me, it's simply noticing, bringing our attention gently and softly to just being here and now.  Stopping, pausing, noticing all the sounds, senses, feelings, all the things we see and seek around us, and being present in each precious, present moment. 

Being aware within it, capturing it all,  finding the light and joy in so much that is so very simple, but is everything.  

I wonder, today, and as a gentle awarenesss practice to carry forward - how might you bring more mindfulness into your heart and life?  How might you choose to see the beauty in all the ordinary moments and things, and realise just how extraordinary these truly are? 

What will you notice? What will you bring your attention to?  Will you choose to stop, pause and take in what is around you, or even, right in front of you? 

Bring your full presence to this moment, this thing, this interaction, this person, this conversation, this piece of writing - whatever it might be - take it in, capture the light in all the ways you can, notice what shifts and changes, how your heart opens, your spirit lifts and you feel more connected with yourself and with life. 

With love,
x Katie