What’s guiding you?

When something hurts, we want relief.

Of course we do.

That might be why we come to mindfulness.

And it does bring relief.

Moments where the body relaxes, the mind goes quiet, the heart opens.

But is relief all you want?

When I ask people who are starting out with mindfulness what they want, I hear words like calm and space, but also connection, courage, kindness and purpose.

Alongside relief, these things enrich our lives and help us take better care of our families, our communities and the wider world.

If you’re in the middle of a tough time, right now you might not be thinking about stuff like this. Relief might well be what you want and need right now. 

But it helps to know that mindfulness offers more than relief. 

Knowing that changes how we approach things. 

If courage is part of the landscape we are exploring, learning to open up to difficulty starts to make sense. 

If purpose is part of the conversation, what we do starts to matter. 

Even if we are starting with relief, we can have a bigger map of where we are going with all this. 

So, if you just starting out with mindfulness, or if you have going at this for a while, it might be worth asking yourself: what do I really want from this?