Mindfulness in the In-Between Moments

Everything that happens to us doesn’t always happen at important moments or during significant time periods. Sometimes there is a version of events that occur right amidst the highlight reels of our lives. I know we have become so accustomed to something happening and then we run immediately to our social media accounts to announce it to the world. Those are usually key moments – a new job, a relationship, a birth, a death, etc. However, what about life unfolding between the regular moments of life – walking through the grocery store, standing in line at the DMV, washing our car, or traveling to work? I can agree, they don’t seem particularly special or spectacular, but if we take a step back and look it them from a different perspective or a different position, there are a lot of mindful moments that exist there.

Mindfulness isn’t just reserved for a meditation or space where people go for retreats. It’s not just found in wellness spas. It shows up whenever we decide to pause long enough just to breathe. It shows up when we start to notice tension arising but instead of judgment, we find a way to relax and find stillness. It shows up as we sip our coffee instead of trying to rush through it. These minor moments are not empty of presence; they are subtle invitations.

In the Kind Rebirths space, how I used rebirth does not arrive as a dramatic, life-altering incident. It doesn’t have to. Sometimes a rebirth happens simply by choosing stillness and presence instead of making movements in autopilot mode. When we learn that we can live a life that does not require us to try and get ahead of ourselves or to move at a rapid pace, we can learn to return to a pace and place where we are….in this/that moment.

Observing the in-between moments, we have the opportunity to see ourselves without the distraction or the noise. We start to notice all of the things that our bodies and minds have been holding on to unnecessarily. We begin to sense what emotions we are carrying. We can reconnect with the part of ourselves that goes unnoticed or ignored because it doesn’t yell and scream for attention. Mindfulness in these moments renews the way we experience our waking lives. As we continue to realize and reveal that peace does not require perfect conditions; it requires awareness. The more we practice our approach, the more we learn to ground ourselves when we face overwhelming experiences.

Pauses create emotional spaciousness. And in these spaces, we learn to respond instead of reacting. By reminding ourselves that we don’t need to escape life or the experiences that we go through in order to find peace or the calmer ways of life, we should enter it fully with the goal of appreciating the room to explore, review, and reassess.

Rebirth here is unobtrusive. It happens before the reaction and before the response. It happens in the moments that we choose to be more compassionate with ourselves. Moreover, it can even happen in the ordinary moments of our everyday lives.

Stay mindful…

Rebirth