Maintaining your momentum is vital, when it comes to realizing your dreams and goals. This however becomes difficult when you are facing challenging situations. Mindfulness helps you to be patient, receptive, open-minded and non-judgmental as the practice involves acceptance of your thoughts and feelings without judgement. It encourages you to experience your emotions fully, not suppressing any, whether positive or negative. 

The fact is that it serves you better to honour your emotions by fully experiencing all that it entails, without judgement. Allowing yourself to experience all feelings fully, will actually allow the feeling to pass quicker and with less intensity than when you interfere with the process. Suppressing your feelings is not good for your mental or physical health. Your emotions should be viewed as your helpers as it spurs you on towards taking the appropriate action according to your situation. 

Acknowledging feelings is necessary, when you name what you are feeling you immediately gain a better understanding of the genesis of the feeling and can then better process it. As long as you remember that your feelings, though serving a purpose, must be under your control and not you under the control of your feelings. Clearer understanding allows you to connect and listen to your inner wisdom, do not disregard your intuition, but own it, claim it. At the end of the day, it is only your own mindset that can flip the switch on the challenges you may be facing, into opportunities. Mindfulness allows you to get a firm grip on reality and gives you the opportunity to plug into your best life. 

As children we tend to gravitate towards making little personal shelters, often under chairs or tables. Today, go carve out a corner for yourself. A space where you feel safely cocooned from the outside world. A space that is just for you where you can exhale and just be. You need to make a space to think, to breath, a space you can exhale and connect with your inner self, a place for spiritual practices. 

There is a certain zen-like quality in practising mindfulness which is conducive to arranging the workings of a scattered mind for optimum clarity. It offers stress elimination and fosters well-being. Inner peace correlates to being at peace with your soul, your authentic self, your true nature. It generates a sense of acceptance, forgiveness, compassion and love.This practice allows your inner voice to be heard as mindfulness quietens the cacophonous sound of your thoughts. Become mindful of what your body, mind and soul needs. 

The simplest explanation regarding meditating is just to focus on your breath. The inhaling and exhaling of your breath are a perfect focus point. When your mind wanders as it is wont to, just bring the attention gently back to your breathing. Continued focus on your breathing anchors you in the present and keeps you plugged into the here and now. Meditating is not about a quiet mind but rather being still in the moment, to simply experience being. 

Invite your inner wisdom to show up by quieting yourself. Sometimes you have to disconnect from it all to reconnect with the deepest parts of yourself. Unplug to connect to yourself. Yes, technology allows us to connect to anyone globally in mere seconds, but this very connectivity has been the death knell of living wholeheartedly and instead has made us feel disconnected from ourselves, others and from life in general. Incorporate a regular disconnecting session from your devices to reconnect with yourself and your environment, free from distractions. It is easy to let technology and work obligations overwhelm you causing you to discard the people and things that sustain you resulting in stressed out living, missing the real point of life. 

This journey requires head and heart work, which means, explore your feelings and thoughts for understanding so that you can move on. We tend to get stuck in our hurts and anger, unable and unwilling to let go. Recognizing how holding onto your little miseries is stealing future joys away from you, will be impetus enough to let go. It allows you to see clearly if you are thriving or merely existing and surviving. This will lead to you revaluating your life, and making the necessary changes to ensure that you thrive. Mindfulness helps you to cultivate what you need and let go of what holds you back. Trust yourself and your intuition, worry less about what others may think. This practice will help you gain clarity regarding your plans for your life through understanding where you need to place your attention and awareness. The outcome is tantamount to you no longer being subject to the sway or lure of mindless entertainment and distractions. This practice makes you realize more of your innate potential allowing you to attain fulfilment, highlight innate potentials and abilities within you that wants to be activated. All you have to do is open yourself up to the power of insightfulness. Through the revelations that observation will bring, you may learn truths you’d never have access to otherwise. Practising Mindfulness leads you to seek balance and harmony in all that you do, which is living and loving wholeheartedly. Living in the here and now comes with a myriad of benefits such as enhanced mind function and many more. It will also make you feel less anxious as you will feel calmer and more grounded. Staying in the moment will also allow you to connect with family and friends on a deeper level.  

Cultivating a mindful life is a lifelong journey and albeit a simple practice it is far from easy. Mindfulness and meditation practices profoundly affect every aspect of your life, that is, emotional, spiritual and physical life. Studies shows that the mind can and does affect the body, and being mindful is truly a miracle elixir for wellbeing. The state of your mindset is reflected in the health of your body. Only you, fortuitously hold the power to enact change in your life. So, go ahead and spark a change in your life, by practicing mindfulness. Remember, it takes just a tiny spark to ignite a chain reaction of possibilities. 

Here are a few quotes that you can use as a powerful source of inspiration to aid you in refocusing your mind. 

Every morning we are born again. What we do today matters most - Buddha 

Each day herald a fresh start, a new beginning, it's your choice. Hold on to the dredges of yesterday, the hurts, the triumphs or seize the day as if you both are brand new, not shackled to yesterday nor holding out for a tomorrow that may never be. The only place we can make a difference in, is today. Life only exists in the now, today. Today is the space where history gets made and the future, destiny planned. Mindfulness allows you to be fully aware and involved in the present moment, experiencing what is with acceptance and non-judgement. living can only be done today, not yesterday nor tomorrow.  

Mindfulness meditation brings the invisible walls that keeps you from living fully into your field of awareness - Zibeth Rose 

We are wont to put up barriers, mostly unconsciously, as a measure of protection. Meditation brings these invisible barriers into our field of awareness which helps us dissolve them, because they don’t only keep the bad things out but also the good. Once you become aware of these walls that are sheltering you from the good and bad things in life, mindfulness will help you be courageous. You will be able to break down the barriers as you realize living behind a wall is not thriving but mere surviving.  

Be happy in the moment. That is enough - Mother Teresa 

It seems simple but it is not easy. Most of us spoil a happy moment with thoughts of what was or what could be instead of just accepting what is. The surest way to kill off happiness is to think of what will make you happier. It appears as an innocent thought, but it is one that will always leave you feeling dissatisfied with what you have. It will rob you of the joy you could have had, being happy with what you have.       

It is not what life gives you that shapes your character, but your response - Zibeth Rose 

You cannot control what happens to you in life but you can control how you respond. Your response to the challenges and triumphs in your life reveal the quality of your mindset. Your response is something you can and should control, as your response determines what happens next, good or bad.