Footsteps echoing loudly on creaking stairs while a master pianist has already begun his concert. Incessant coughing and clearing of throats demanding my attention. A shifting chair. A neighbor who’s suddenly too warm and happens to be wearing a jacket with not just a zipper but also velcro…
Tiny, trivial things.
Often I probably don’t even notice. Sometimes I might even be that person. But there are moments when it feels like someone’s throwing a match into my gas cloud.
Reactivity
Or as the zen master I heard speak called it: projection.
Meaning: we’re rarely simply present with what is. We don’t just hear a sound — we hear our story behind it. We don’t just see movement — we see what it means to us and what thoughts it triggers.
I myself thought more in terms of reactivity than projection. Because sometimes I seem to have an inner mini-reactor, despite all my practice in zen and mindfulness.
The confusion around mindfulness
And then there’s that confusion around the word mindfulness… I actually think it’s poorly chosen.
Mind-full. A full mind.
Full of interpretations. Full of meaning-making. Full of inner noise. Exactly what triggers my mini-reactor: it doesn’t take much… Boom.
It’s the opposite that helps: mindlessness. A bit less mind. A bit less story. A bit less me-having-an-opinion-about-it.
Exactly what mindfulness actually trains.
Citta: heart-mind
By the way — a lovely detail from Buddha’s teaching: in the Buddha’s original teaching, there apparently were no separate words for “heart” and “mind”. In Pali they use *citta* — one word for both.
How meaningful is that, really… That thinking and feeling were once seen as one. While I sometimes struggle so much to unite them.
Perhaps that’s what I mean by mindless, and why I react quite reactively to the word mindful 😉: that my head may become a bit quieter, so that my heart-mind becomes one again.
Being at peace
Because then noise remains just noise. And people keep doing what they do.
But I am at peace. And I smile.
Because I know: not the world, not my fellow humans, but I have something to soften.
To go from reactive to non-active in my mind. And to full in my heart.
Love❣️
Maaike
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About Love in Action
I love to create happiness by connecting people in my personal and professional life. So I am a mediator.
I also love words—because they connect too.
So I write loveposts and blogposts filled with heartfelt wishes, sprinkled with a touch of music.
My mission?
Simple: spread love.
To inspire growth, kindness, and living with your eyes, mind, and heart wide open.
I dream of making the world a little warmer.
Love in Action — that’s what I believe in.
Will you join me? 🤍
Have a love note for me?
Always welcome: contact@maaikegoyens.be
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Love in action 
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