If you’ve read the first three articles of this series you already know that I am on a personal quest where I am actively and prayerfully asking God to guide me as I sort through all the reading and research I have purposefully accumulated over the last six months about mindfulness, meditation and yoga.

My questions to God:  Are these Christian practices and should Christians participate in these practices?  If some of them are not Christian; are all of them?  Can I practice one part and leave out some of the other parts and be okay?  Is there a way to incorporate these well-loved practices of our current culture into my Christian lifestyle?

This is an ongoing quest to prove to myself whether or not I have missed the boat somehow by not practicing these things; and if these things can REALLY be good and godly practices.

Are you searching for the same answers?

I gladly share my own personal thoughts and discoveries here.  I welcome your comments; whether you agree or disagree.  My theory is that Christians do not always have to agree.  Iron sharpens iron.  The fact that we are considering whether what we do daily is right or wrong is very important.  Perhaps this will happen; whether or not we agree on all of the answers.

I’m very aware that at least half of the world will disagree with me.

That is perfectly okay.

Also; please understand these articles are not directed personally toward anyone that I know.  It is a cultural issue of which I simply give examples of the day-to-day observances I see in the world around me.  This is merely an attempt to bring new awareness into an area of our lives that is often overlooked.  If your own viewpoints and world-view are mentioned (no one will ever be mentioned by name) it shouldn’t be taken as a personal offense.  I am speaking about the whole culture in general and do not mean to single anyone out; though many of you may identify with my examples as I give them.

I will always love my friends and family whether we agree or disagree; just as Jesus always loves me; whether I follow His ways all the time correctly or not.  Love is the ultimate answer to everything in human nature; but my concerns are given out of love for The Father and my love for the things that make up the patterns of His heart.  I don’t expect everyone to agree with my definition of that.  I have a good friend who always says “that is why God made chocolate and vanilla; if he hadn’t life would be boring!”

Let’s move on past our personal thoughts and get to the subject at hand.

Life is all about learning, growing, discovering and living to the best of our abilities with God.  That is my personal goal, and I’m thankful to find that many in The IN SEASON Lifestyle Community are joining me and pondering what is truly right and what is truly wrong.  We are all only human and I’m very capable of taking wrong turns and changing my mind when things are proven true that are contrary to what I believe.  I hope you can be open-minded and at least consider some of the facts that we will turn out here.

So here goes; it is time for the big question – Just what is mindfulness anyway?

LOOKING FOR TRUE DEFINITIONS

I’m a pretty stubborn person who has to prove everything out. I’m not easily swayed when I am sure of myself; but if I am unsure I try to keep an open mind, pray, and do my homework. There really is so much I still had to learn about mindfulness, meditation and yoga. I’m well aware of my own personal ignorance on these subjects and I’ve set out to correct that position.

Due to all of this research on the subject; I now have been made so much more aware of how popular these practices have become in my home town, my state and my country, and actually all over the world.

I’ve noticed that most of my own family seems to approve of it all (except for my husband.)

The closest friends I have are singing the praises of these practices.

So; how could I be such an old stick-in-the-mud about something that seems to be bringing so many to such good health and well-being?

IF IT JUST FEELS GOOD; SHOULD THAT BE REASON TO DO IT?

I patiently discussed my latest quest for information with another close family member who had recently participated in a very popular yoga group.

“Have you tried it out for yourself?” she asked.

“No, I’m trying to learn all there is to know about it first.”

“Oh, well you should just DO it then decide. If you read about it first you will hear all that stuff about the yoga poses being worship poses for Hindu gods; but if you actually DO it you will discover that IT FEELS SO GOOD!”

Well I refrained from telling her that this is what I call ‘Ernest Hemingway morals.’

Mr. Hemingway once said “About morals, know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.”  I’m just not so sure that Mr. Hemingway’s thoughts are always accurate.  There are so many parts of life that “feel good” that are not healthy or good for you.

Have you heard how Mr. Hemingway’s life ended?  All of that “feel good” morality did not make him a healthy and happy man; though he was an amazing author.  I would rather pattern my morality after Jesus.  He truly understood the concept of joy!

This sweet young girl was a person that I thought made good decisions in life.  For her; I think it might have been a mere thoughtless slip of the tongue and a short-lived lapse in judgement.  However; her comment did not escape my notice and I pondered how many other young girls have these same thoughts.

She was doing yoga because it made her feel good; but she had completely ignored the possibility that it was an ancient pagan practice used to worship pagan gods.  After all; that wasn’t why she did it.

She KNEW this and she thought nothing of it.

She was a Christian.

I prayed for God to show whichever one of us was wrong the truth.

These comical and colorful visions of my earthly father’s face played over and over in my brain during this conversation.  I could hear the words he had repeated to me at least a million times during my teen-aged years; “If everyone else goes and jumps off a cliff; is that a good reason for you to do it too?  Use your head and learn to think for yourself.”

Still not quite ready to take a firm stand and speak my thoughts out loud; I continued my quest of searching out the facts.

SO MANY QUESTIONS; SO MANY DIFFERENT ANSWERS

I spoke with another friend who was closer to my own age and I had even interviewed her once about her healthy lifestyle.  I thought surely she would disagree with the practices.   This woman is my mentor toward better health.  Her progress and results have been amazing.

She is one of the strongest Christians that I know. I found out that yoga was a steady part of her workout routine and when I asked her about it she didn’t seem to see one thing wrong with it.

Her comment was that she wasn’t using it as a religious practice; to her it was just exercise.

This friend is very active at her Y.  The Y was founded on Christian values and is known for promoting Christian ways. My friend’s yoga class is held right there at the Y.  How could it not be only using things that are Christian?

Of course this had to make it okay – right?

I also thought of all the churches that I knew in our area that were conducting yoga classes for their congregations.  Surely I was not getting the point.  I was encouraged to find out why and exactly what they knew that I didn’t.

USING MEDITATION TO HELP YOU BE A BETTER PERSON

I spoke with a young man I admire very much who meditates every day.

This guy expressed with open-honesty and humility about his past problems with violence and how he is overcoming his tendencies toward violent anger by managing it through the practice of meditation.

He has used meditation to overcome these problems for years now.  This seems to have helped him.  His problems have disappeared. He constantly sings the praises of meditation and says he cannot imagine going through a day without it.  I asked him if he thought it was godly; he said anything that helped him to overcome his anger had to be a godly thing.

Every day now; my research continues.

I know so many people who are living in this place of practicing mindfulness, meditation and yoga.

CAN YOU REALLY SEPARATE THESE THREE PRACTICES?

Each of these popular practices (mindfulness, meditation and yoga) are constantly appearing as popular subjects in all of our local activities and local publications

I had finally begun to read the huge stack of publications I had accumulated on each subject. I noticed in flipping through each publication, (though it wasn’t ever stated at the start) that it seemed you could not effectively separate one of these practices from the other.  Everyone spoke of them separately; but in the end of the conversation you always found all three; mindfulness, meditation and yoga living together in one place.

My first thoughts were that “mindfulness” without meditation and yoga might be a different practice altogether.

I just wasn’t sure it all worked that way; and I had a lot of reading to do before I could get down to the details with the answers.

Also, I spent even more time listening to the comments of those that I knew personally who practiced these things.

After many conversations with folks that I knew; I heard a You-Tube video of a girl who had been heavy into all three of these practices.  She explains how she came to realize that the practices were actually (after a long period of practicing) making her sick.  Over time she had discovered that these practices contained pagan rituals.  Her culture was Indian and her religious beliefs were Hindu.  Because of this fact, at first she wasn’t a bit bothered; then she became a Christian.  Eventually; she gave it all up.  Now she goes around giving her testimony in order to try to help others get away from these practices.

Why was she the ONE in the crowd that gave me some negative feedback?

I didn’t pick up a book in my stack of informational publications until I had prayed and fasted and sought God’s answers.  He was the only One I wanted to hear the truth from in the end.

GETTING MORE EDUCATED

Then I began to read.

I decided to pick up the lovely little magazine I had found in the supermarket first.

In contrast to this pretty magazine, the other books I had purchased on the subject actually looked a bit boring.  Most of them had very plain covers.  They were all pretty thin in volume and  most of them were printed with large print that made for quick reads. The covers were all in solid colors, usually dark blue, but some were brown and/or gray.  Most of the book covers were very minimalist in design.

I looked at the contrasting magazine.

So modern.

Very sassy and up-beat.

My first thought was that my daughters would probably be impressed with this pretty and focused magazine. They were about the same age as this woman on the cover, and they often dressed in a similar fashion. I supposed that every woman in their late twenties – middle thirties was probably seeking out answers to questions about the same things; the arts of living that make people grow into mature adults who have something worth-while to offer to the world.

That was my hope anyway.

THE PROVERBS 31 IMAGE

By a quick glimpse at the beaming evidence so tastefully displayed from the photo on the cover of the magazine; this woman would probably have a lot to contribute to society.

She was pleasant.

Most would describe her as ” pretty.”

Her face looked very intelligent.

She seemed totally at peace.

You could easily imagine yourself sipping coffee in her living room and laughing at her stories about her kids.

Most would assume she was the kind of person who wouldn’t flinch if one of her young children spilled chocolate milk on her pure white sofa; she would simply clean it up the best she could, hug her child and pour another cup of milk for them.

Kindness oozed from her countenance.

Surely this was the Proverbs 31 woman that we had heard about for so many years.

She appeared to be successful in every area of her life.

She just looked the part.

APPEARANCES CAN BE DECEIVING

Bravely, I opened the magazine to read the first article.

The first page was simply a photo of a blue sky with fluffy clouds and a hint of a sunset peeking out from behind them.

In very small print were the letters which said “Welcome to the new you.”

In much larger letters in the center of the page were only three words: MINDFULNESS MADE SIMPLE.

Had I found the answers that women across America had been seeking?

I turned another page.

There was another beautiful photo of a colorful drop of water with the reflection of some type of interesting plant covering the whole space of the next page and over to the side was a simple table of contents with five topics:

Discover Mindfulness.

Find Your Focus.

Rethink Yourself.

Improve Your Influence.

Change Your World.

Under a lovely pink and white just-opened-and-blooming flower photo on the next page I read words written in very small letters: “Journey One.”

Then in large letters: DISCOVER MINDFULNESS.

TRYING TO DISCOVER MINDFULNESS……

An article followed that was designed to help me to find and discover mindfulness.

It was printed in smaller print and squeezed into the rest of the page around the great photos.

I pulled out my glasses with great curiosity and began to read and discover someone else’s definition of “mindfulness.”

SHOULD WE ALL JUST ACCEPT THE DEFINITION OF SOMEONE ELSE ON THE CONCEPT OF MINDFULNESS?

The article started talking about the fact that we all experience large quantities of global stress.

We have cell phones and computers now and we are constantly communicating and everything we communicate about seems to be very urgent.

The feeling of overwhelm is discussed and a few examples are given.

It is mentioned that we all at some point become discouraged with all of this urgency and overwhelm.  Eventually, we all suddenly stop in the tracks of our daily lives to ask ourselves why we are living life so superficially.

We wonder why we aren’t experiencing more active living in the moments of our daily lives.

Then the magic statement comes; that one that we all have been hoping to find…….the fact that we can fix all of these things by learning how to practice mindfulness!

IS THERE REALLY A MAGIC FIX TO OUR STRESS AND OVERWHELM?

That’s it!

They have spoon-fed us the magic answer that we all have been seeking!

Had they not spoon-fed me; my mind would have thought about the facts that maybe we could just quit using the cell phones so much; and maybe we could only check our text messages every other hour or so. Maybe we could cut down on the social media engagements and go outside and take a walk or ride a bike or do something that equates to a different and healthier activity.

But no; those were not the answers – the answer was mindfulness.

Oh; I thought that WAS mindfulness!  Obviously I have a lot to learn.

SUCH MAJESTIC AND NOBLE SOUNDING LANGUAGE

Doesn’t that word “mindfulness” conjure up majesty and nobleness for you?

The next page of the magazine contains a photo of a vast and beautiful landscape tinted blue with a large body of water and a girl standing with her back to you.

She is perched on a large rock.

The girl is looking outward and she seems to be trying to decide what to do next.

(I will admit here that I WAS loving the excellent artistic abilities used in the photography of this magazine. It had the ability to tell stories and make statements without using words.  I DO love and appreciate that talent.)

So it is that the words of the first article come to an end and you, the reader, are left with a feeling of the urgency to become more mindful.

You need to find out how to do it!

It kind of feels like you are that girl looking over the vast, endless body of water and trying to learn how to get over to the other side.

You’ve got to figure out how to get across to the other side.

But at least you now know that EVERYTHING can be fixed when you discover how to use this one little element – MINDFULNESS!

I’m a writer so I’m pretty terrible about critiquing every article or word that I read. That is just what I do.

I thought to myself – WOW!!!! This author just said SO MUCH about NOTHING AT ALL!!!!!

Those are some very skillful writing abilities!

Then I laughed out loud at myself for being so impressed at someone who was talented at writing words that said absolutely nothing significant.

Whether they were telling the truth or not; at least the photos were speaking to me of something.

MINDFUL OR MINDLESS?

More and More this pursuit of “mindfulness” was beginning to feel like a pursuit of “mindlessness.”

So far I knew nothing more than I had originally known about the subject and I had consumed at least four pages of this very expensive magazine.

To be fair to their grand effort; I moved on.

The next page had a photo of the back of a man’s head and he was wearing headphones.

The article spent a lot of time talking about the fact that we all communicate with electronics these days and that communications have sped up so much that it could eventually affect us in a very negative way.

We might find ourselves moving mechanically through our days without actually thinking about anything we are doing.

This is because we are always using the same repeated daily routines and we tend to go through the constant motions out of boredom, and we aren’t really paying attention to everything that we are doing all day long.  Our minds seem to disconnect from our realities.

Basically we are all so “connected” to our technology that we subconsciously disconnect from many of our surroundings and live our lives on autopilot.

We are there; but we are not totally aware of all that we are there with.

The last sentence of this article explains that if we develop mindfulness we can learn how to reconnect with our world and feel more alive.

MINDFULNESS OR COMMON SENSE?

Again my enthusiasm for common sense kicks in.

My brain screams for the guy to just take the headphones off for a while and take a break so he can go communicate with a co-worker; or better still make love to his wife; or play some fun games outside with his kids.

But those would not be the answers according to our guru from the glossy magazine.

The answer would be to develop mindfulness.

So again I ask; what is this “mindfulness” that they haven’t explained yet?

Well; we must keep going. I’m sure they will get around to explaining the process soon.

IS MINDFULNESS THE WAY TO GET OUT OF THE RAT-RACE?

Then we come to that typical description of how we are all living in a “rat race.”

I have a flash-back of the seventies again when I attentively read a book called “Leaving The Rat-Race.”  I suppose this is a timeless problem that each generation has dealt with in its own way.

It is stressed in the article referring to the time we are in right now that one-in-three do not get enough sleep. It is also noted that we take less vacation days than we once did in years gone-by; though the days are earned and available for the taking.

Even when we DO take off; we stay working part of that time because we have made use of technology which allows us to be away from work; but still stay connected.

Now we all are working well past the age of 65. We seem to be 50% more overweight than we were in the years before multi-tasking became so popular. The article explains how we now endure longer workdays and more general stress.

Reading this article about being constantly involved in the rat-race of society should convince us that we definitely need our health and wellness situations to improve.

We do seem ripe for a change; agreed?

MINDFULNESS A SUBSTITUTE FOR INTELLIGENCE?

At this point I’m thinking the answers are “go home at a reasonable hour, take your vacation you have earned, turn off the cell phones while you are away from work, don’t check your e-mails from the office at home, and start doing one task at a time until all tasks are completed, then you check it off the list and move on to your next task.”

But my typical answers to these common, everyday situations were all wrong.

The answer from the magazine was that I should start practicing “mindfulness.”

Again; I still do not understand exactly what this practice is!

ARE WE REALLY ALL HIGH-FUNCTIONING ZOMBIES?

The next article spends a whole page of words convincing us that we all have the bad habit of “mindlessness.” It seems that we are not even aware of this bad habit!

We are even described here as being high-functioning zombies!

Now that is sad.

I had suspected this all along….

They give endless examples of how multi-tasking is counterproductive, even though it seems to be the way of society and the main function of the work force today.

Yet; they are not recommending that we stop this action; we are being told how to cope with it instead.

Of course you cope by incorporating mindfulness into your daily life.

I wasn’t surprised to hear this…..

In Article Five of this series we will keep attempting to find the answer to the definition of “mindfulness.”  I haven’t finished all the articles in the magazine and I have piles of books on the subject.  There answer will come.

It is out there – I know it is.

ONE FINAL QUESTION:

My final question today is why is this practice so illusive?

Why can the practice not be stated boldly out-loud right from the very beginning of the instructions to someone who wants to know?

Every edition of my stack of books and research articles appeared to be explaining in this same vague way.

No one was willing to spill the true definition and give the proper instructions for immediate practicing.

Why?

I’m told later; it is like peeling an onion one layer at a time.

I’m thinking I never cry when the skin is on the onion; it is later when I begin to peel the first layer back that the tears come.

I’m getting the feeling that meditation, yoga and mindfulness might be truly like they say; like peeling back an onion.

Keep reading the series to find out with me.

I promise a definition will come.

I am determined to get to the bottom of it all.

 

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