Joyce’s Concluding Thoughts about Mindfulness by Tessa Watt

The weeks since starting studies of the fabulous book titled “Mindfulness/A Practical Guide” by Tessa Watt has proven to be a very personal journey for me. “Where next?” as the title of the final chapter Is a great question to ask myself as we complete this book on Quantum Leap Book Club today. The information throughout the book, of course, is excellent. However, what has brought me the greatest satisfaction and personal changes has been working with the practices. The practices which I have repeated numerous times have proven to be an interesting experience due to uncovering new thoughts every time. Now that I have had a taste of recognizing and changing my thoughts to be different and more open, I feel an urgency to continue with many of the practices introduced. I have recorded my thoughts on paper as we have explored the many mindfulness practices and I celebrate the changes I have experienced. Early in the process, I became aware of the frequency of my thoughts being totally random and disorganized and rapidly shifting. I realized that my awareness was limited due to the continuous diversion and distraction my thoughts created. I recognize that I have experienced an initial but powerful increase in my ability to focus. In this final chapter, what impacted me the most was the comparison to caring for a small plant. Daily care is imperative for a plant to survive and flourish. Already from my daily application of mindfulness practices, I see the obvious comparison. I am excited how I have experienced definite changes through daily practice. I know there is still a distance for me to travel to be able to declare that Mindfulness is how I live and who I am. However, my journey has definitely started and has brought me results. I anticipate how I can expand from here. Some excellent questions to answer are outlined on page 151 and 152.  Obviously, each of us, as the readers of Tessa Watt’s book, can benefit from answering these questions with the purpose of setting up a personal plan of “what’s next?”