With the start of a new year, many of us create a list of resolutions to improve our physical, emotional and spiritual health. Perhaps instead, we could make just one small but significant step towards the life we want to live by developing our mindfulness practice.

According to Jon Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness is “none other than the capacity we all already have to know what is actually happening as it is happening.”

Our friend Lauren Sophia Kreider (Sophia-Says.com), creator of mindfulness cards for kids, says, “Mindfulness is being aware of the present moment without judgement.” Becoming more mindful first requires a desire to be more present to our lives and those around us, and can be as simple as taking a deep breath, pausing and settling in to what is happening inside and around you. Mindfulness can be further developed with help from a routine of quiet meditation or yoga. From these practices, we can become aware of what might require more (or less) attention in our lives. We begin to make shifts, naturally addressing those things that typically end up on our new year’s resolution list—but with more understanding of why.

For example, with awareness of our bodies, we might notice stiff muscles or joints or extra weight and realize that we need to increase our movement. We would be free to make choices to support that awareness by spending more active time in nature, taking a dance class, visiting the gym, taking a walk. Tuning in to how we feel as we are eating and immediately afterwards might lead us to explore healthier or different choices in our foods. With mindfulness, changes can be small and may involve not only what we eat, but how and where we eat and with what energy and intention our food is prepared. What we are able to realize by being present in the moment is unlimited; as we become more in tune with our inner self, with our bodies, with others and with the world around us, we have greater capacity to manifest the life we want to live.

With a warm welcome to a new year and a new decade, we ring in 2020 by mindfully turning towards opportunities to feel good, live simply and laugh more.

Jacqueline Mast and Kendra Campbell, Co-Publishers