Mother Teresa once said, "Be happy in the moment; that's enough. Each moment is all we need, not more."

It isn't always easy to live that way though. Our minds often lurch here and there, and sometimes they don't feel like our friends.

If left unchecked, my own inner critic can turn on me. Does that ever happen to you?

Yet there are times when the beauty of a sunset stops me in my tracks or simply looking at someone I love fills my heart with a gratitude that just leaves me speechless. In those moments, my higher self sits at the helm and the stories in my mind stop mattering whatsoever.

This is the essence of mindfulness.

Mahatma Gandhi once said,

"A man is a product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes."

Science backs this up. According to a recent study by Massachusetts General Hospital, consistent mindfulness literally changes the neurons in your brain.

So if you practice mindfulness in moments of anxiety or depression - and you take positive actions such as listing 5 great things you have going for you - your brain will transform your experience on a chemical level.

Then you become the author of your own life story.

But it takes practice to be mindful. And it takes a willingness to set aside our little stories and quibbles with life - no small thing!

This nondenominational Serenity Prayer (which is usually attributed to American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr) is a wonderful touchstone for exactly this purpose:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change

The courage to change the things I can

And the wisdom to know the difference

We are souls in physical bodies, stuck in linear time - so we cannot change the past. But the future is your oyster, and it's up to you to walk in the direction of your highest self...

Stay curious,

Nick Polizzi
Host of Healing Kitchen: Let Food Be Thy Medicine
& Founder of The Sacred Science

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