How Mindful Can I Be This May?

So, I recognise that updating my blog every two years isn't keeping you engaged. And, it's not like I've been sitting on my arse either.

Well, until now. This May, I've committed to sitting on my arse every day, for a good cause...

You see, my inspiring friend Elise Bialylew (she's a psychiatrist, and trust me, we want more psychiatrists like her) has launched Mindful in May - a stunning campaign encouraging people to meditate every day in May while raising money to build water wells in parched third world villages.

She calls the practice "Pause for a Cause". Catchy.

Last year, MIM raised around $29K. Direct result: Charity Water are right now completing the construction of five clean water wells in Ethiopia and Nepal. Over 1,000 villagers will soon have clean running water for the first time - starvation, disease, pregnancy and birthing complications, dangers encountered while walking miles to get clean water - it's hard for us to imagine, but having clean running water is going to reduce suffering and save lives.

Two weeks ago, I wrote a handful of my soulful friends: "If I raise $500, I'll meditate for 15 mins/day. $750, 20 mins. $1000, 25 mins. $1,500, I'll commit to 30 minutes a day of meditation. And so on... The more you put in, the more I'll put in."

So far - my friends have raised $1,510 to get me meditating and clean water flowing! (Thirsty to sponsor me too? Donate here. This year, 100% goes to bringing water to Rwanda.)

I've been blown away by the response, totally touched, totally blessed - and deeply inspired to hold up my end of this wonderful exchange.

I'm planning to keep transparent throughout May about how I'm going, through posting little updates here. Please visit me and kick (or kiss) my ass, as necessary.

I won't lie - I'm busy. I live a full life, and need to keep all my engines firing. Meditation will help, once I get over not having the second glass of wine, going to sleep earlier, and not groaning myself back to la la land when the alarm goes off an hour early.

However, in the midst of early resistance, I remember Osho's take on what I have to gain:

Meditation simply means a discipline that makes you capable of being aloof and detached from your mind. So even if the mind is sick, your consciousness is never sick. Even if your mind is going crazy, you are just witnessing it. Mind is only a machine. You are not. Meditation is the experience: "I am not my body, not my mind -- I am the witness of it all." This experience, this transcendental experience, immensely transforms the whole situation. Many things which were driving you crazy simply drop away.

In thanks to my friends and family supporting me in various loving ways, to the 2000-strong community sitting for Mindful in May, and for the glass of clean water in my hand... Ohm.