"Our minds need more than the puzzles about life we feed it.”

This thought inspired me to notice how I was truly feeling and experiencing what I was feeling: bliss, internal peace, and joy during my morning walk. Walking under Grandma Willow, as I like to call her, my sibling-friend tree, my hands brushed through her long leavy hair, tickling the sides of my fingers and face as I walked playfully like a child running through a shrine of rainbow ribbons. My lips couldn’t help but curl upward, and my heart was saying thank yous for this perfect moment. Everything from then onwards on my walk just seemed so joy-giving. The grass appeared greener and felt softer under my feet. The wildflowers were more welcoming to touch, and with the gentle breeze carrying their perfume, I couldn’t help but stop walking for a few moments and breathe deeply and slowly. I was living, feeling, and experiencing fully. I was relaxed in mind and body. Nothing to rush to, no expectations and standards to meet or adhere to, no problems to fix, no concerns to worry about, no one and no demands to satisfy, no place or thing to rush to… nothing. Only peace and enjoyment. With a gentle nudge from my dog, I started to walk again. And that’s when I thought, “Our minds need more than the puzzles we work so hard to solve.” I didn’t want to leave the intentional being in the moment-to-moment experience or what can be described as a mindful experience. It truly was mind-filling.

It is one of many systems operating together for your survival, growth, and evolution. Yes, it is one of many systems. We, humans, are living organisms designed by the Divine hand that understands the rhythmic, harmonic dance in all things necessary for balance and harmony to support positive optimal functioning. Look at the seasons wherever you are on this beautiful planet. How do you know there is a change of season coming? Where do you notice the clues and information of this change? How did this source of your clues help you know what to say and when to notice it’s about the change in season? Our body, mind, spirit and environment also experience this interplay. When they work together harmoniously as they fulfil their role, we experience optimal positive health. In turn, we function well, we relate and interact well, we learn, grow, and adapt well, and we intentionally live and successfully achieve our life purpose well. In short, we live fulfilled and satisfied. We feel happy.

But isn’t this the reason for the puzzle part we strive to solve daily, some might wonder. And you would be right in wondering this. So, let me ask you this. Have you ever achieved a goal you wanted to achieve during a very challenging time in your life? How did you manage to achieve that goal? What did you do? How did you feel doing it? What did your eating and rest routine lie during this process to move you closer to achieving your goal? What were your relationships like, even with yourself? What about your thinking? Take a moment and reflect, even journal your responses to these down. What do you notice? Were you in a flow of peaceful movement that pulled you towards what you wanted or were you caught up in the waves of fear, anxiety, and urge to avoid the “bad” outcome that pushed you towards doing what you have to, must, or should to achieve your goal? What price did you pay that you didn’t have to pay as a result of the way you were during the process of doing it? What difference would it have made if you acted a little kinder towards yourself and enjoyed the flow of a peaceful pull rather than a fear-evoked push?

The mind is, for the most part, a mysterious, ever-evolving conundrum the more we try to understand how it functions. However, it also has simplicity to it when it comes to understanding what it needs to function. The mind needs a mission to fulfill or a puzzle to solve because it loves to learn and grow by nature. That’s why it is neuroplastic. For it to do this, it needs opportunities to declutter, which we provide during moments of silence when we can go inward to notice what is needed to stay and what it needs to let go of that no longer serves us. It also needs positive nourishment and stimulation through what we say, hear, feel, and do. When we have experiences that revive positive energy in us and increase warm emotions to accumulate in us, the more energy our mind receives to support the clear laser-focused thinking we need to solve the puzzles we are striving to find solutions for.

Nurture your mind in ways you deserve to experience it and ways it can serve you.

NOTICE & ACT ON IT: What can you do to start today to feed your mind some positive nutrients?

1. Notice what and how you are thinking in your daily moments.

2. Notice what feelings or sensations that style of thinking awakens in you. What do you feel? I feel annoyed. Where are you feeling? Lips tighten and eyebrows get scratched up. My forward tenses - I get a little headache there.

3. Reframe the situation. How else could you look at it? Check the facts. Does the intensity of my feelings match what is happening or has happened? What might you be missing that, if you knew or understood, could cause you to feel or act differently?

RESOURCES

• Unlock Secrets to a Happier You with Happy Hints.
• Discover what might be keeping you from being happier; take the 5-minute Saboteur Assessment.