At Spirit of Eden, we live mindfulness and have been engaging with various perspectives on it for years. During this time, we have seen that the cliché has intensified more than ever. Many put enormous pressure on themselves to do everything "right" in a supposedly mindful life: The perfect morning routine before an extensive yoga session, which rarely corresponds to a realistic everyday life. Mindfulness should not be another item on the to-do list, but a state of connection - with yourself and the world around you.
Our perspective on mindfulness: A modern take on mindfulness
Don’t get us wrong: We would also love to meditate daily, act thoughtfully and empathetically at all times, take regular time for ourselves, reflect on the day, and go through life in balance. That would be the ideal case, but we all know what the reality of everyday life looks like. Appointments pile up, current news won’t let us go, and suddenly we find it hard to decide whether we should prioritize the touted me-time or time with family. Should I really cancel the yoga class for dinner with my best friend? What is more important? What corresponds to a mindful life?
Let's take the stress out: Isn't it more sensible to look at how we can live mindfully, even when our calendar is occasionally fuller than we would like?
Let's approach this step by step and make mindfulness applicable.
Mindfulness is not about perfection and ticking off a list to be able to call yourself mindful. Mindfulness is a moment that you feel. This can look different for each person. Mindfulness should not create pressure through strict structures, but rather relieve you of the constant feeling of stress in not being able to meet all demands in everyday life.
For us, mindfulness means experiencing a moment in which you are completely yourself. This can happen in countless ways: turning off your phone completely for a moment, singing along loudly to your favorite song, preparing a meal with dedication, or meeting up with your friends, even if it means canceling your yoga class.
In short: You feel connected to yourself and the world.
However, you can find your own way, and no one knows your life as well as you do. Do you spend a lot of time in the car on your way to work and tend to get upset about red traffic lights? How about playing your favorite song at the next red light?
Of course, this is just an inspiration, but there are people who engage intensively with mindfulness in real life.
One of them is Benjamin Joon: A mindfulness teacher who combines meditation with modern coaching methods. He talks about the essence of mindfulness and what the key is to anchor ourselves in the present again and again in everyday life, to make small intuitive decisions that benefit us in the long run.
We listened to an interview with Benjamin that totally inspired us and would like to share it with you.
Benjamin Joon: “We need love & joy to embody mindfulness”
Benjamin Joon has a very natural way of talking about mindfulness and does not make us feel that it is a distant state that we can only achieve after much work on ourselves. Benjamin understands mindfulness as a practical approach to life that goes far beyond mere theory.
He sees the key to a conscious, mindful life in feeling love and joy - an approach that feels really good to us. Joon talks about how in our “high-performance everyday life,” where stimuli and appointments often overlap, we can find moments of create connections in which we truly feel the present - this can even be while washing dishes or cleaning.
“What I want to pass on to my participants is to understand spirituality not just intellectually. Rather, it is about the personal experience in practice and the ability to nurture happiness and alleviate suffering in every moment of everyday life.”
If you want to hear more about Benjamin Joon's topic, we have linked the entire interview here for you.
How to: Make mindfulness experienceable: 3 approaches for you
If all of this still sounds too abstract to you, we have here, inspired by Benjamin Joon, 3 tips for you on how to live mindfulness, even when your calendar is sometimes too full.
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What does your mindfulness moment look like?
The beauty of Benjamin Joon's approach: mindfulness is not something abstract, but something very practical and should be fun – experienceable in the midst of everyday life. What’s stopping you from doing something spontaneous that unexpectedly makes you happy, something you can truly enjoy? And if that means ordering pizza for breakfast, that’s okay too! Think of Benjamin Joon: "We need love and joy to embody mindfulness".
Even in moments, If they could feel further away from mindfulness, we want to take a step back, zoom out, and ask ourselves: What is important right now, in this moment? How do I feel? What is happening around me?
VMaybe this is exactly the wake-up call you needed for the day, and you can change something in your busy day that feels better for you: more me-time, a quick call to someone who energizes you, or an appointment you can cancel without the world falling apart. Take a step back and free yourself from expectations that you or others currently have of you.
Do you want to share with us what everyday mindfulness looks like for you? Then write to us on Instagram and we will share your mindfulness moment. We look forward to your message. 🤍