Some of my personal thoughts on the UN Conference on Racism.

Am I a slave? Or am I living a fully aware and mindful life? Mindfulness is the practice of living in the present moment, or the wonderful now. But how many of us live in slavery right now; the greatest slavery of all, the slavery of our own minds?

I know that my greatest master is my own mind, not anyone or anything outside of me. I don't have to die in order to go to hell, I can be there right now - here on Earth!

Here in my head and in my mind. So many of us spend so much of our time living in our past or our future. Neither of which exist! And then we live in slavery, missing out on the wonderful present. With each moment, with each breath, we have a choice to live in slavery or to live in freedom. Which do you want, slavery or freedom?

Slavery has been a topic at the UN Conference on Racism. Am I a slave? My mind can enslave me when it chooses to churn up the hurts and anger from the past, relive them right now, and live then I live in hell. However, I do have the choice to change my the thoughts in my mind and when I change my story, my perceptions start to change. First I have to recognise what is troubling my mind. If I take the time to meditate upon it, then maybe I can begin to understand it.

But what I must realise is that I cannot change anything in the past - I can only begin to heal myself in the present moment! Understanding something leads to acceptance, which in turn begins the process of learning to love myself again.

It has been said that the opposite of slavery is freedom. A friend recently told me that she thinks the opposite of slavery is uncertainty. I am not entirely sure I agree with her, however I do believe that in order to unshackle our own chains we have to pass through "a veil of uncertainty".

If we trust ourselves and personally apologise to ourselves, then we can have freedom. With this first small step of acknowledging to myself that past hurts were unequivocally unjust, I can start to heal by giving myself some loving-kindness. Once I have recognised that what has occurred in the past was wrong and that I was not responsible for what others have done to me or to my ancestors, my attitude can change.

I am being responsible for myself right now. When we trust ourselves enough to forgive the injustices of the past and begin anew, we can start living in the precious present and enjoy living in peace and joy. We can be in Heaven on Earth.

However, it requires us to remember to stop for a moment, breathe deeply several times, then come back to what is really happening right now. By using prayer, or meditation, we can stop our minds from living in Slavery and learn how to appreciate and celebrate this precious present. After all, this moment is all any of us own in this life! Jeanie Seward-Magee can be reached at The Mindfulness Practice Community of Bermuda (236-4988) or by e-mail at iamhomeibl.bm.