Help us cover the map with mindful movers, as we try to "take over the world" with mindfulness! [see Put Me on the Map]. This is meant to highlight that many people are looking to move away from the historical acceptance of war as an international reality. The more people depart from a competitive world-view in favour of mindful awareness and cooperation, the more the world will be taken over by mindfulness.
Challenge yourself to choose a practice to focus on each week! Use the articles, and weekly topics/cartoons and other tools in the app, along with relevant issues in your life, to choose a practice (or focus), each week for a year. Carry the practice you've chosen in your attention (and intentions) through the week, and see what you notice. If you want to track your insights, use the "insights this week" tab to send yourself a note.
Think about practicing with thoughts, feelings, or actions/interactions, depending on the topic and what you'd like to focus on. Evolve as a person (soul), with each aspect of self that you bring into mindful awareness.
Mindful on the Move App helps you understand your "self" (how you experience your sense of self), and mindfulness, through a new topic each week. Whether you're new to mindfulness, or a seasoned practitioner, challenging yourself to keep a practice in mind each week helps you sharpen your mindful focus, while observing your habits "as they happen."
Mindful on the Move App is unique because it focuses on helping you understand how your "sense of self" is connected to mindful awareness. The 52 weekly topics are attitudes or actions/reactions that we all use during everyday life. As you take a closer look at habits connected to each weekly topic, you develop a nuanced awareness of yourself of how you operate with issues like anger, avoidance, love, choice, and vulnerability.
Mindful observance of the "self" and its habits, is a natural part of mindfulness practice, but it helps to have prompts, like our weekly topics. Mindfulness is traditionally a practice in eastern philosophies (and really all major religions in their deeper aspects) toward enlightenment, elimination of "ego," or spiritual connection with God or source. With practice, as conflict clears from different levels of self (mental, emotional, physical), you become the proactive version of yourself, and stop being the reactive version. You also actually feel lighter (probably where the term enlightenment comes from), and intuition kicks in more often, to make things really interesting - but that's for each person to internally discover!
Your brain responds by supporting neural networks for calm intentional awareness, and adjusting ones that go straight to the habit or stress response. Focus with more clarity on your highest goals, and less on managing (reacting to) problems, or spinning/negative/judgmental thoughts. Neuroplasticity refers to the brain's ability to change, which is what happens when you use your focus more in some ways, and less in others. In mindfulness practice, you gradually take more conscious control of how you use your attention and thoughts. With practice, your brain responds by augmenting neural networks that support your intentional focus. If you stop using some of the neural networks formed from old habits, the brain dismantles them and redistributes neurons to support things you're doing more.
Instead of waiting for world leaders to clean up their act (does anyone really have that kind of time)? ...take full control now of the one thing you have control over- YOU. The state of the world is an "outer world" reflection of the "inner worlds" of people. As people settle their inner world conflicts, fears, and negativity, the outer world will reflect that with more harmony. You do your part just by becoming the best version of you, and contributing what you uniquely have to offer, no matter how big or small that contribution seems.
So enjoy the ride (ie: mindful moments along the way)... and thank you for your part in making the world (and the world in you) a more mindful place.
...more on practical application in the Mindful Walking section...