Mindfulness as a Superpower

"Mindfulness is the ability to know what's happening in your head at any given moment without getting carried away by it."Years ago while picking up my daughter from kindergarten, I pulled into a spot in front of the school and sprinted across the lawn as the class was letting out. A man across the street, waiting in his car for his daughter, began yelling. As I turned around to see what the commotion was, it turned out he was yelling at me. I was pretty flustered. I had no idea what was going on. I asked him if he was speaking to me. He said yes and went on an extended rant out loud in front of everybody picking up their kids, calling me reckless, dangerous and a bunch of other things. His daughter, waiting into the front seat of their car shrank. This was obviously not new behaviour to her.Being that I live a block and a half from the school, was alone and just trying to get my girl, I stopped responding to him. I hadn't sped, nobody was jumping out of the way of my minivan. Was it because I hurried across the lawn? Everyone does that when it's chilly. Teachers are pretty good about the time it takes for little ones to gather their belongings and file out. But I stewed over it for a long time, wondering why a complete stranger would yell at me until I realized that his behaviour likely had nothing to do with me and could have been brought on by anything.This brief video is narrated by Dan Harris and animated by Katy Davis for Happify. It gives us an average, everyday scenario similar to mine. How we internalize it and handle it is what matters because it doesn't have to affect us for the rest of the day, or ever again for that matter. The more you practice mindfulness, the less you will be affected by external influences. And that my friends, as the video says, is a superpower.