When I reflect on who I was before meeting my purpose at West Virginia University as a future fitness and wellness instructor/health promotion specialist/whoever I will become, I didn't apply meaning in my life. I didn't take time to acknowledge my weaknesses so that I could develop my strengths. I didn't refer to myself as an authoritative, ambitious, enlightened, strong-minded individual. I thought I was someone who was just experiencing things as the opportunities arose. Now, I am still that person, with opportunities found wherever I look for them, and I create my journey and lay down the bricks to pave my way. It sounds cliche (because I am), but I attach meaning where it's warranted, and I can recognize myself as a responsible adult. This is highly related to my efforts in applying mindful practice. Because I am fully aware of what I am currently pursuing, I can better prepare and execute my duties in the future. What I am doing now will benefit me tomorrow. We all want to feel as though what we do beholds purpose.

Every day we prepare for our future. We get up to start our day, we brush our teeth to sustain hygiene, we go to class to eventually graduate, and throughout our day we don’t take the time to understand our purpose. Some of us don’t even realize we have one. I know that I was starving for a purpose my freshman year of college. I felt like I was this person who wanted so much out of myself and life, but I was missing a crucial piece of information about myself: I have a purpose. Whatever the purpose is, I was where I needed to be at that point in time to develop that purpose. That spring semester, I enrolled in a Sport and Exercise Psychology course, and it blew me away. At that time I was a Sport Management major, hoping to score a job out of school as a life coach. I didn’t know sport psychology was a practice, though I’ve had the desire to become a professional within the same ideologies, methods and concepts practiced within this science. This lead me to where I am today; an aspiring fitness and wellness coach who can brighten the esteem and improve the lifestyle of my future clients.

Through study abroad, my class learned mindful meditation at Halmstad University of Halmstad, Sweden. It was then when I most needed this; I have always been mildly nervous and uncertain of myself and my surroundings, and this truly brought a soothing essence to my energy. Before then, I would sit with the weight of the world on my chest and wonder what I was so nervous about. I now simply take a breath, acknowledge my feelings of insecurity, indulge in a full body scan when I have the time, and it can change my day. I've never been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, and this is not applicable to those who are, as I am not undermining the science related to a real illness; medications and rehabilitation diagnoses are put into effect for a reason! However, this did help my anxious tendencies, and I believe it could have an impact on anyone who would be willing to practice this as well. I recognize that not every person has an optimistic, “everything will be okay” attitude. But there are ways to improve your attitude. The seven attitudinal foundations of mindfulness developed by Jon Kabat Zin are as follows:

1. Non Judging: whether the judgement is good, bad, or neutral; the goal isn’t to stop the judging, but rather be aware of it.
2. Patience: allowing time to unfold as it will; an analogy can be a butterfly in a chrysalis takes its time, because it would not benefit the butterfly to emerge from its chrysalis before it is ready.
3. Beginner’s Mind: for all the times we told someone “you are just like a person I know!” We often allow what we “know” to dictate an outcome or experience. Try seeing things with new eyes and treat every opportunity as it is unique.
4. Trust: we think about our trust for others, but take time to reflect on the trust you have with yourself. Trusting your authority and intuition, regardless of mistakes made. Take responsibility for your actions and respect your feelings.
5. Non-Striving: meditation in itself requires you to be nothing more than yourself, allowing yourself to view you as you are in the moment: happy, sad, frustrated, or overwhelmed. Take you as you come.
6. Acceptance: as we sometimes deny what is reality, facing things as they really are can help treat what is the real problem. Acceptance is not evading responsibility, but it is a willingness to allow alternates, change, and growth. See things as they truly are.
7. Letting Go: acceptance in its behavioral form. As acceptance is a more cognitive element, letting go is the action we take to follow through our cognition. In time, relief will follow.

These helped me discover my purpose as the practice itself would encourage me to embody these attitudes. The acceptance and letting go aspects allowed me to cross bridges when I got to them; trusting myself eased that process. As mindfulness requires your full awareness, it is truly not the absence of thought, as many people perceive mindfulness to be; it is the practice of the true awareness of the physicality, spirituality, and mentality you are experiencing in your environment at the time of practice. Before eating, it is the awareness of the ingredients, the aroma of your food, the sight of your food; while eating, it is experiencing the texture, the flavors, the way you swallow your food and what it actually feels like to really experience all of these things.

My favorite way to be mindful is walking to where I need to be in warm weather. Sometimes I find a nice lawn on campus and lay there feeling the energy of the ground beneath me and letting the universe mesmerize me with its grace and beauty. I love to smile at the sky and feel the sun rays beating down on my skin and my clothes. I love the pigmentation of the grass, trees and flowers. I embrace the rain, but it is not as easy to embrace the cold weather. I don't embrace the cold weather well. But I hope this article helped those in need of a mindfulness lesson. I always like to leave a disclaimer that I am not (yet) a professional, but I have practiced and integrated these teachings into my lifestyle. Next time you're doing something you enjoy, experience it for the first time. Trust yourself and be patient because you're all that you can be. If there's something to worry about, be straightforward and address it; if the outcome is not how you like it, change it or let it go. If you need to find your peace through finals week, just eat a lot, cry some or meditate — you might just make yourself laugh.