A better term for mindfulness?

Doesn’t mindfulness sound like a lot of work? There’s something about the term that’s irksome. 

It’s because there’s a negative ‘should’ quality to it. It’s something you’re supposed to do. As though your unfavorite-most teacher nasally reminds you from the back of your head, “Mindfulness, Evan, mindfulness!”

Every third blogger admonishes you to be mindful. What gets lost is the surprise and elation that comes from being immersed in the thing you’re doing.

In my experience being alive to what I’m experiencing right now is mindjoyousness. It’s incredible. It’s mind blowing.

When you are raptly attentive to whatever is in front of you, you are abandoning yourself to its beauty. 

This existence becomes a dream realm when you are mindjoyful. 

You adore your sloppy co-worker. You are fascinated with your son’s tale of boredom in class. You are right there in the slowest of moments . . .

It’s not a chore. It’s a liberation.

It’s not something you must remind yourself to do more of. 


Mindjoyfulness is it’s own reward. Like kissing. Like peeing when you’ve had to hold it an hour. Like watermelon on a hot summer’s day. Like doing nothing at all in a hammock.

You want more of it, which is why you naturally become more mindjoyful in more moments of your life once you’ve started down that path. You can’t help it! 

When you are mindjoyful there is a bursting ripeness to everything. 

Things click. Life gets you. Life flutters its fairy wings at you. You become dog and cat. Happy and free. Engaged and independent. 

With some otter thrown in. 

(Playful.)

Who doesn’t want to own that?

For you —

Evan Griffith
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