Written by Rebecca D'Onofrio

“Great fullness of being, which we experience as happiness, can also be described as love. To be undivided and unfragmented, to be completely present, is to love. To pay attention is to love.“ – Sharon Salzberg

Mindfulness is the foundation for manifesting the inherent qualities of the heart. Without stabilizing our capacity to be present, we cannot express our loving qualities, and they remain at the conceptual level. The present moment is where love actualizes.

Love, compassion, joy, and peace are the natural qualities of human wisdom. They spontaneously arise when our mindful awareness meets the present moment. When our mind is scattered, fragmented, and busy lost in thoughts, we can’t experience the great fullness of our being that radiates love.

Love is the expression of wisdom; it is how wisdom can be known. If wisdom is like the sun, love would be its rays. Love is meant to connect us with one another. It is not meant to remain stagnant and locked up in a conceptual way — this would merely be our own imagining of what love is. Love is meant to be felt and experienced right here and right now in relationship to others.

But we can’t access the “right here and right now” without first being present. This is why we train in mindfulness. It moves our attention away from self-centered thoughtless distraction toward the present moment, where love and wisdom can spontaneously arise and permeate our environment and embrace those around us.

People most often remember how you make them feel, not what you say or promise to do — and there is nothing that shows someone how much you love and value them like being fully present, fully open, and fully available.

In a world that’s becoming more distracted and disconnected by the minute, training in mindfulness to stabilize our ability to be present feels more important than ever. As Thich Nhat Hanh said, “The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.”