Mieks Contemplates

In 2016, I had a heart attack. Not surprisingly, I wrote many reflections on life that year. Looking back at the last 10 years, here are some of the lessons I've learnt - and am still learning.

Life-changing events, like heart-attacks, don't announce themselves with a bang. It's a quiet whisper, and it's up to us to pay attention.

We pay attention by pitching up. And most importantly, by pitching up for ourselves. Your body, your mind and your soul require your presence.

Often in the pursuit of making a living, seeking love or finding our purpose, we abandon ourselves. We look outside ourselves for the answers on what our days should look like, what we should be feeding our body and mind, how we should be moving, how we should connect with others and how our hearts should behave.

We need to quiet the noise of the world, so we can listen to the whispers of our heart and tune into our being.

Isn't that our purpose - to be human, to fully embrace this existence? Not just the happy moments but the anguish and sadness, the disappointments and hurts, the lightness and laughter, the deep knowing and boundless love.

I've keenly been following the monks and Aloka on their Walk for Peace across the US. Our own journey starts with offering ourselves the gifts they are teaching the world to remember.

We need to offer ourselves gentleness and grace - to use our disappointments and hurts to gently uncover our lessons and to engage the world, including ourselves, with more grace.

We need to offer ourselves unconditional kindness - to know that there will always be more lessons, to accept that we are always in the process of becoming our true selves.

We need to offer ourselves lightness and curiosity - to discover all the ways we are unknowingly standing in our own way, to uncover our playfulness and enjoyment of life.

We need to offer ourselves gratitude - for the distance we have already travelled, for the beautiful humans who have walked alongside us and for the moments still to come.

And so we can feel unconditonal love flow through us. Filling up our own heart until it overflows into the spaces and humans we encounter on our journey.

Today, I invite you to switch off the noise of the world for a while, sit in that silence with yourself, with this magnificent and beautiful human, and ask yourself - how can I be present for me today?

From that gentle, loving place of awareness, may you find the answers you seek, may you discover new questions and may you sow a seed of hope in your heart.

When each one of us moves through the world from a place of gentleness, kindness, curiosity and love, we will create a world we can all live - and thrive - in. And that, is hope.

You can follow the Walk for Peace here