Defining a Path: The Little Red Book of Mindfulness

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Mindfulness is not hard to understand.

Understanding mindfulness is not mindfulness.

Practicing mindfulness in your daily life is a process, a habit, that once you embrace and understand can make significant improvements in your quality of life and even your health.

Defining a Path: where do you want to go in your life?

If you don’t have a good idea of where you want to go, everything else in your life is a bit harder. By understanding your “purpose” (whatever you want that to mean) it can become more clear if an action is toward or away from your goal. It’s best to explain this with an example.

I want to be a successful writer. That’s one of my overarching goals. So, when I have a weekend ahead of me, I have options. If I blow through my weekend without much writing, I’ve made decisions and actions that are no aligned with my goal. By understanding this about myself, I often put “writing” moments in ever day of my life. Little steps along the journey of becoming.

In fact, I already am a writer. I write. I have books. I have more books on the way. I’m writing at this very moment.

Of course, we can’t stay “on task” every free moment in our lives. The choices we make have more influences, partners and connecting with them, rest and recovery, exercise, prayer and meditation. It’s too easy to blow through a weekend or a weeknight without any creative cycles. But if this becomes a habit, then my quest to become a “writer” is not being served.

When I’m in flow (writing with joy) I am experiencing a little bit of nirvana here on Earth. Nirvana is inside you. It is 100% in your mind. Unlocking it, feeling it, requires some intention and then action that follows your intention.

First, we’ve got to define a path for our efforts. Here are a few more of my overriding objectives:

be a great father to my children.
be a strong and supportive partner
walk my daily path with joy and compassion
enjoy my work
be intentional with my play
produce a tv series based on The Off Parent
love life to the fullest

Listening to myself and turning for the journey ahead.

Namasté,

John McElhenney – life coach austin texas
Facebook | Instagram | @wholeparent

Table of Contents

- observer – pause (ghost on the ceiling + next right action)
- affirmations – changing your thoughts by prayer and repetition
- energy = mood – lessons in self-awareness and consumption
- defining your scale – 1 (depression) to 10 (manic)
- self-compassion – go easy on yourself during the hard times
- self-soothing – how you nurture and lift yourself back up
- listening with intention – give your attention to someone else’s pain
- up and out – interrupting sadness and loneliness
- defining a path – where do you want to go in your life
- refining your goals – along the journey it is important to reset
- full-stop reset – when everything feels out of balance
- resting in hope – hope is the key to unlocking energy and recovery

How I Can Help

I am a relationship coach and a dating coach. I coach women in small groups as well as individual 1 x 1 zoom calls. If you have questions about life coaching I am happy to talk to you. Please schedule a phone call HERE.

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Here are my books on Amazon:

Single Dad Seeks: Dating Again After Divorce: Advice and Strategies on Learning How to be Loved Again
Fall of the House of Dad: My journey through divorce, from loss to joy, again and again
A Good Dad’s Guide to Divorce: One father’s quest to stay connected with his children
The Sex Index: Getting Our Love Languages Right in the Bedroom
Here Comes the Darkness: Surviving and Thriving After a Mental Illness Diagnosis
The Third Glass: When Drinking Becomes an Issue
The Storm Before the Divorce: When One Parent Wants Out, That’s the End