The year is about halfway over. Perhaps, this isn’t news to you. But, I am sitting here right now with my mouth wide open, trying to answer the following question: How did I let that sneak right past me, and just NOW realize it?

I could make the whole, “Life got busy” excuse. But, I won’t bore you with that. The truth is that I just haven’t been mindful. That’s it. That’s the reason. I haven’t been mindful – plain and simple.

For the first three months of the year, however, I was quite mindful. I engaged in a daily exercise that helped me stay mindful – mini-journaling.

A Mindfulness Exercise That Works: Every day, I documented in writing one significant thing that happened that day. It could be good or bad, but I always tried to make it positive. And, I just used a simple Google Drive document, so I could update it from anywhere. Easy peasy… Here are a few examples of the types of daily events I would track:

1-1-14: Recovered from blacked out drunk night with pizza and a Boardwalk Empire marathon.
^Clearly, not my proudest moment, nor the best way to start a brand new year… but, hey! It happened.

1-5-14: Mom made me Pasta Fazool and spent the night.

1-31-14: Finished reading “A Thousand Splendid Suns.”

2-2-14: Downtown photoshoot with Shirley.

2-7-14: Took down Christmas decorations.
^Hey, don’t judge!

2-28-14: Had a vivid dream about floating with family in the wide open sea, and then coming to a gorgeous casino on the water.

3-12-14: Broke a board.

3-15-14: Ryan and Philicia’s wedding.

See? Pretty simple!

I am really mad at myself for abandoning this exercise. I’m being super stubborn about restarting it again because there will be a huge two and a half month gap in the year, once I restart. But isn’t that better than not restarting at all, or trying to wait until next year? Yeah, I think so, too.

It really helped me track my life, acknowledge the things that mattered each day – whether good or bad, sad or happy. And, it provided a great tool for evaluating my progress.

Mindfulness is important. It’s how we live the width of our life, and not just the length. It enables us to stretch time, if you will. It’s damn powerful.

How do YOU stay mindful? Please share in the comments below…

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