Part of practicing mindfulness is just noticing what’s around you.
Sometimes it can be appreciating a conversation. Sometimes it can be remembering to say “thank you”. Sometimes it can be stopping to listen to the sounds around us. And sometimes it can be seeing the world. Mother Nature at its best.
I was taking a “wellness” walk at lunch. Every time I walk, I pass by an overgrown field. It’s full of weeds and I usually glance past it.
One day I stopped and took this picture.
“Weeds, right?”
Yeah but I thought, “isn’t this pretty?” I especially loved the delicate white ball. I had never seen one so large.
We think of weeds as ugly. Something to be cut down and sprayed with toxic chemicals. I never remembered anyone teaching me this or telling me to hate weeds. Yet, instinctively, I just had this bias.
It made me think about how deep human bias lives within us. How did this prescribed thought get loaded into my brain. But then something more interesting, once you are aware of the bias, just that quickly, you have the power and choice to correct years of hard wired programming. Being aware of these biases and taking the time to reflect on these experiences is the key to not allowing them to hold us back or miss something.
Now when I walk, I mindfully take time to stop and simply smell the weeds as well as the roses (bad pun, I know.)
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