Hi friends, Julie Cross here. How you doing? Just come back from a morning walk, picking up my glass on the beach. A very mindful activity. And it got me thinking.
I’ve left my shades on so that you can see my beautiful view that I’m sitting here looking at. A beautiful morning in Redcliffe this morning, albeit a tiny bit chilly, it’s still beautiful. So I just wanted to talk about the power of mindfulness, because something that I find really interesting is that as adults, we spend all this money on doing courses and reading books to discover how to do things that we actually already knew, and I truly believe that sometimes we just need to remember what we already knew. And if we got back to some of that childlike behavior that we did so naturally as children, then we would discover all of these secrets that we have to spend so much money on and do courses on to find today.
So I look at mindfulness, children know how to be mindful. Mindfulness is being in the moment. Being involved exactly where you are right now. And so for me, collecting glass on the beach is a mindful activity. I’m there, just looking for glass, everything else goes out of my head. And then you get space between your thoughts so what that does is create that space, and that’s often where creative ideas drop in or where, I believe, the universe whispers to you. And it tries to tell you a few things it’s been trying to get to you but your mind’s been so busy it hasn’t been able to whisper things to you. And so that’s how moments of clarity sometimes, our moments of creativity. And so when you think back to children and how they display mindfulness.
I remember when Jack was little, and we were going to go to the park for the day and I was getting frustrated because you know, he was outside playing. Jack, get your shoes on, we’re going to go to the park and we’re going to have a lovely time. Come on Jack, come on, get inside, get your shoes on, we’re going to go to the park and have a lovely time. Jack, get your damn shoes on and get in the car, we’re going to the park and we’re going to have a lovely time! You see, the thing is, Jack’s already having a lovely time. He didn’t need to go anywhere to have a lovely time. You know, we’re going to the park to have a lovely time, but he’s having a lovely time in his backyard. And that’s mindfulness in action. Is finding that, being where you are, and enjoying where you are wherever that is. And it doesn’t have to be somewhere fancy. So that’s mindfulness.
The other thing is with children you’ll notice is Jack, it’s time for a bath, hop in the bath, Jack, it’s time for a bath. I don’t want a bath yet, I want to play! Hop in the bath, Jack, it’s time for your bath, get in the bath. No, no, I don’t want a bath yet! Get in the bath, it’s time for a bath! And then, Jack, get out of the bath. Aw, I don’t want to! You didn’t want to hop in the bath, now you don’t want to get out of the bath! Another example of mindfulness in action. They be where they are. And the other wonderful gift of mindfulness is that you don’t carry yesterday’s stuff over into tomorrow, into today. You know, you let it go. And children know how to do that.
And some of you might have heard the story that I tell and poor old Jordan, you know, they’re 21 now. He’s probably sick of me telling this story. But Jack and Jordan, his little mate that lived up the road, they’re great friends of ours, and they were playing together from four years old. And one day Jordan was over playing, and there ended up being a bit of biffo. And of course, it was Jack doing the biffo. So Jordan goes home crying and I say to Jack mate, you shouldn’t treat your friends like that, you know! He won’t want to come back and play with you tomorrow. And you know, you’ve got to be kind.
And Jack says to me, oh, don’t worry mum. He’ll be back tomorrow. And sure enough, nine o’clock in the morning, there’s Jordan knocking on the door, is Jack there? You know, and I did talk to Jack about being kind, but the thing is, the point of that is that kids don’t drag yesterday’s stuff into tomorrow, into today. They know that we’re all human. That we make mistakes and mess up and they kind of leave it in yesterday and move on.
Now that’s another gift of mindfulness, of being in where you’re at. So I think that there’s there’s a great benefit to rediscovering it if we’ve forgotten. And sometimes it really is about remembering what we already knew. And not being childish. But going back to some of that childlike behavior that was so valuable to us. And we did it so naturally, because our soul knew what to do. And then we started overthinking it all.
And so anyway, that was my little reflection for you this morning. I hope you’ve enjoyed the view, it’s a beautiful day. You have a beautiful day. I appreciate you all. Thanks for stopping by!