There was some point in my progression of meditation, where I felt it was weird to reinforce positive thoughts through words and visualization. I thought it was strange to tell myself that for every breath, I am happy, or some other imaginary scenario like I’m a happy smiling sunflower. I thought about that short song of “Breathing In, Breathing Out” (https://plumvillage.org/library/songs/breathing-in-breathing-out) and contemplated about how I feel about this. One of the monastics from the Walk of Peace encourages the morning thought “Today is going to be my peaceful day” and if you’re some “realistic” or even “pessimistic” person, it can seem ridiculous how that thought does anything to solve your everyday suffering.

Returning to the monastery, I learned just how much of my mind, actions, and words were filled with habitual energies. Funnily, in this debate of reinforced-visualization, the practice of mindfulness actually encourages this for everything we do, whether drinking water, cleaning, opening the door, waking up, etc. Returning back to my mindfulness, I learned that taking every opportunity to pause, I was establishing better compassionate energies within me and seeds for positive growth.

I am grateful to learn and being to understand more about how to involve my mindfulness lives in everything I do.