11:11 Mindfulness Makes You a Dream Magnet

It's 11:11. What are you thinking?

If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.~ Wayne Dyer

Your thoughts have tremendous power. You have co-created your current reality with the sum total of your thoughts. If your inner dialogue is mostly random, negative or punitive, you’ll be too low vibe and mentally scattered to focus on making your dream a reality; if you have a tendency to worry, overthink or catastrophize, problems become so prominent that they can totally blind you to solutions. Even though they feel miserable, low energy states like blame, resentment and depression can dominate your thoughts, making you feel pessimistic and thereby incompatible with your dream.

These draining states of being are not only habitual, but also contagious. You can “catch” another’s negative attitudes through exposure. When you realize how much your thoughts influence the quality of your experience, you will want to become more aware of what’s on your mind.

You can use the practice of mindfulness to tame the habitual self-sabotaging thoughts that can rob you of the joy of living your dream. Being more mindful of your inner dialogue helps you to harness the power of your thoughts and direct them toward what you want rather than on what you don’t want.

Every thought that you have impacts you. Shift from a thought that weakens you to one that strengthens you. ~ Wayne Dyer

If you spend too much of your mental energy on judging, problem solving or thinking critical thoughts, your thinking will make it so: you will find even more things to judge, more problems to solve and many more things to complain about; you may miss crucial opportunities to engage with the world and advance your dreams when you’re ruminating or distracted by distractions. If you want to live your dream, you have to harness more of your thoughts and direct them toward accomplishing your heartfelt intentions.

If you believe it will work out, you'll see opportunities. If you believe it won't, you will see obstacles. ~ Wayne Dyer

Becoming more mindful lets you see opportunities rather than obstacles. Mindfulness is a form of meditation. It’s the act of being intensely aware of what you’re thinking, sensing and feeling moment to moment without interpretation, analysis or judgment; it’s a deep and simultaneous awareness of oneself and the environment.

If in every idle moment you reach for your phone, you’re agreeing to think someone else’s thoughts and feel someone else’s feels, whatever they may be.

If you live mostly in your mind and forget about your body, you’re cutting yourself off from a vital intelligence feedback loop meant to guide you through life step by step. Getting goosebumps when you hear the truth, feeling the hair standing up at the back of your neck as a warning, or that pit of the stomach feel--these are some of the essential messages your body broadcasts that are meant to help and support you in your soul’s journey through time.

Becoming more mindful means slowing down. Life moves fast, but whenever you rush, you become externally focused and less self aware, so give yourself the gift of time and space. Create mindfulness gaps in your schedule. Avoid over scheduling and overpromising. Make space to savor small things and express gratitude for what you have.

Becoming more mindful means minimizing distraction. Digital distractions are seductive, by design. Many people exhibit symptoms of anxiety when deprived of technological stimulation. It may be countercultural, but to preserve your sanity, limit digital distractions. When you’ve taken tangible steps to create the conditions for you to be calm and undistracted, you’ll notice the subtle messages that life is constantly transmitting to you through all six senses (5 senses + intuition).

Spiritual Practice: Mindfulness

Here are some ways to practice Mindfulness:

• Focus on your breathing. Sit in a quiet place with your back straight, but relaxed. Feel your breath move in and out of your body. Let your awareness of everything else fall away. Pay attention to your nostrils as air passes in and out. Notice the way your abdomen expands and collapses with each breath. When your mind wanders, gently redirect your attention to your breath. Don't judge yourself. Remember that you're not trying to become anything — such as a good meditator. You're simply becoming aware of what's happening around you, breath by breath. This is the simplest form of mindfulness meditation.

• Make the familiar new again. Find a few small, familiar objects. Look at the objects with fresh eyes. Identify one new detail about each object that you didn't see before. As you become more aware of your world, you might become fonder of the things around you and recycle the things that don’t bring you joy.

• Awaken your senses. Try eating mindfully. Sit in a quiet place with your back straight, but relaxed. Look at the food. Smell it, feel it and anticipate eating it. Taste it, and slowly and deliberately chew it. Notice the way the taste changes. Paying close attention to your senses and your body's reaction to it might reveal insight into your relationship with eating and food, for example. Focus on your other senses in a similar way.

• Pay attention. Try active listening. The next time you speak with someone, suspend your judgments, criticisms and the need to respond. In that relaxed spaciousness, listen closely to his or her words without planning your response. Ponder the meaning. Notice the uniqueness of the individual’s style of expression. Ask clarifying questions to be certain you truly understand the speaker’s meaning. Respond mindfully.

For meditation or focused breathing practices, you'll need to carve out time to be in a quiet place without distractions or interruptions. You can book “stillness meetings” with yourself throughout the day to recollect yourself and maintain presence or make a meditation altar for morning and evening practice.

You can also scatter mindfulness practices throughout your day. For example, if you choose to closely pay mindful attention to another's words, you might try it when you wake up and talk to your partner, at the beginning of a meeting with a co-worker, or during dinner with your friends or family.

While on a walk outdoors, notice the details of your surroundings and how your body feels in the environment. Before reaching for your phone, pause and allow a moment of mindfulness to check in with yourself; notice your thoughts, feelings, intuition and bodily sensations.

Mindfulness practice make the unconscious, automatic thoughts conscious, for it is only through enhanced self awareness that you can gain the capacity to expand into greater love and wisdom and create the conditions that make you a magnet for your dreams.

Photo by Ava Sol on Unsplash