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I Wanted It To Be Love

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Rock Falls, IL
I Wanted It To Be Love

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Jeanne Schneider Vargas teaches mindfulness based interventions to manage stress, anxiety, and pain.

11/05/2026

Yes please.

11/05/2026

AGING GRACEFULLY

I’ve been getting old since I was born. And yes, some years were rougher than others, and I seemed to age more quickly. The challenges of life—falling down and getting up, illness, and surgeries that are not elective—can take a great deal out of us.

The thing about getting older is that we keep learning how to live with change. For myself, several years ago I became more intentional about gentle stretching. I continued to practice meditation, contemplation, and hatha yoga. These practices became part of how I cared for myself.

As our bodies change, how we care for ourselves may need to change, too. We can honor what we are able to do today. There is grace in resting, in accepting help, and in giving ourselves time.

To age gracefully, I believe we need to remain flexible in our thinking, openhearted, and willing to meet life as it comes. We won’t always feel prepared for every challenge. We can give ourselves the same kindness and compassion we would offer a dear friend.

Keep creating. Keep loving. Be curious about what life still has to offer.

We are still growing, even as we grow older.
~ Jeanne Schneider Vargas

11/04/2026

Today is Election Day. 🗳️

Our practice reminds us that compassion extends beyond the cushion and into the choices we make in the world. Voting is one way we can put our values into action.

It’s a concrete way we can demonstrate our care for one another, our communities, and the safety and dignity of all people.

Your voice matters.

10/29/2026

WORKING THROUGH MY PAST FEARS

Tonight Francis and I were watching Chicago PD on NBC. I can barely stand to watch that program. Why? Because I worked on the South Side of Chicago from 1987 until 1998. I worked with people from many ethnic communities throughout Chicago, setting up social service programming within their communities.

Originally, I worked with Chicago City Colleges as a curriculum and instruction coordinator, and I was the liaison to the Immigration and Naturalization Service office in Chicago. Over those years, I gained a great deal of insight into how everything worked.

I opened my own social service agency and took on contract work with the Department of Children and Family Services. I hired 26 caseworkers and counselors to help deliver those services. We also provided translation services to INS. I designed the casework and counseling program to respond to the needs of our clients and meet the requirements of the agency we were contracted with.

One wing of our agency provided in-home support and homemaker services to mothers and fathers who needed help keeping their children at home, so the children would not have to be placed in foster care.

Another wing worked with families whose children needed help returning home to their parents. We worked with the parents to reach agreements and help them cooperate with the department so their families could be reunited. We were extremely busy.

Tonight, watching Chicago PD, I got sick to my stomach. I remember those neighborhoods. I remember those streets. I remember the guns, the shooting, the sound of bullets whizzing past my head when I went to visit parents living in the projects. My staff experienced the same thing.

During those years, I knew no fear. I worked constantly, believing that the Lord was with me. I believed that if I was doing this work for the right reasons, keeping the families and the Lord front and center in my mind, I would survive.

You see, I believed I was doing the right work. And I think the staff members who were closest to me shared that sense of purpose.

Tonight, watching this television program, I got sick to my stomach, and I felt fear.

I feel all the fear that I did not feel then.

~ Jeanne Schneider Vargas

10/27/2026

FORGIVENESS. When someone says or does something that hurts my feelings or provoked me to anger, before I respond, I take a breath to calm and quiet my mind. Then I turn within, opening my heart and my mind where love and kindness reside. I sit with an open mind and open heart in a place that enables me to embrace the good in myself and I embrace the good in others.

Unconditional acceptance leaves no room for negative thoughts or spiteful feelings, so, if I’m feeling negative thoughts and triggered to feel spiteful feelings, I sit with those feelings. Forgiveness comes more easily to me because I trust in a higher power, Spirit, the inherent goodness in each one of us.

As I forgive others, I forgive myself for the times I may caused another person to feel hurt and be hurt. Using this process, it becomes easier to forgive and to become patient when I remind myself that each one of us, as long as we live, are all still growing into the full expression of our divine expression.

What so ever we do to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do unto God because God is in the heart and mind of all sentient beings. Forgive out of kindness and with compassion. ~Jeanne Schneider Vargas

10/24/2026

ALIVE. I am wondrously, gloriously alive. What a gift it is to wake up in the morning. Alert and awake to the wonders of the world, though I might not be full of enthusiasm when I am in pain, I carry an attitude of enthusiasm, and I set my intention to give myself fully to whatever I choose to do.

It is Autumn, with leaves turning colors, I feel the vibrant energy. Each morning I set my intention to bring my zeal and vitality to the day. I give thanks for the beginning of another new day and thanks for the gift of my life.

I show my gratitude by being fully alive. Enthused and ready to take my place in this wonderful world, I affirm: I am grateful for my life and I am so happy to be alive. ~ Jeanne Schneider Vargas

10/23/2026

FREE. I free myself when I embrace positivity. Today I got into my Mobile chair and I went outdoors. I drove around the black top in front of our house. I could not resist driving into the yard to check out my flowers. I made this video for you. I’ve been so mired in family conflict and disharmony since my son Scott passed away in June. Then my accident when my right leg got smashed, and then on top of that the heart failure episode put me in the hospital. This has been a lot of distressing stuff.
I know how I react to the world around me is the choice I make that reflects the world within me. When I choose positivity, I’m thinking uplifting thoughts, opening my heart in a spirit of service and compassion and setting an attention to live my faith by remaining optimistic about the future. I am in the world, but not of it. As a spiritual being I am free in God when I remember this. It helps me cope with all of the stress. Positivity is not a type of escapism or denial of reality - it is a bold declaration. The God around me and within me is my enduring truth, and that I will live as long as I am able.~ Jeanne Schneider Vargas

10/11/2026

COULD WE ALL JUST “BE?” I recently posted some thing about how even though I may have had difficult encounters with someone on multiple occasions that fortunately, I still believe that person has a good side, that they still have some good qualities within.

One of the people who read that post commented on a specific family situation that was really bothering them, and that they felt it may be that family member acted the way they did, because they were influenced by someone else who had power over them. I don’t think there’s any one of us that couldn’t sit down and think about the situation where that might’ve happened in our lifetime.

I truly understand.

I have to tell myself over and over again, sometimes every moment every minute of a time to remind myself I am the one that chooses how I’m going to respond to any kind of treatment I receive. I don’t know what is going on in the mind of an other person.

Specifically I don’t know what the person who is it odds with me has been through. I don’t know where their journey has taken them, and as one reader reminded me, I do not know about how sometimes others are influenced to react one or another, and I don’t know who has influence… dah dah dah dah dah dah…

I do know I can control myself so,
when my oldest son or any of my children - or for that matter anyone says something or does something or doesn’t do some thing and I feel my first reaction bubbling up inside of me is oh that’s not what I expected or “Gee, I would’ve liked things to be different.”

I have to remember that getting myself even more upset and having a volatile reaction and saying something or doing something that I will ultimately regret, just makes matters worse.

So I would, rather for an instance like this or with any of a situation like you’ve mentioned, remember the beneficial moments that I’ve had with that person and enhance those memories in my mind and relive those again and learn from my experience. If I want someone to treat me differently, I have to decide very carefully who I’m going to get close to. I have to give thought to who I know will give me the kind of treatment I expect and or want I have to change my expectations.

And I’ve come to the conclusion that maybe not having any expectation for any outcome in any future encounter with anyone is the best way to proceed. That decision would require I be able and willing to comfort myself and find compassion for myself within myself, and that I don’t look outside of myself to be comforted or soothed or whatever - I just be.
I would BE.
Would this be a better way for me to live?
I am sitting with that thought.
~ Jeanne Schneider Vargas, October 10, 2023
Jeanne’s image of a storm coming on

10/08/2026

I have managed to be supported by friends and strangers from all over the world from family members right here in my own home – all of you have held my hand and have carried me through this. Evidently I was diagnosed with bronchitis, and I filled up with a lot of junk, but I remembered how to take care of myself. I did my nebulizer treatments. I used my steroid treatments to inhale, and my husband has without fail, changed me when I was wet, cleaned me up when I soiled myself - this is what life can be like too. I implore you by your grace and the grace of God of the grace of whatever faith practice you hold or even if you don’t have a faith practice whatever white light you cling to that you will share that with me and you will continue to hold me in your thoughts so that I can make this full recovery because I feel I am doing this. I can do it and with you by my side I know I’ll make it through and I’ll come out on the other side smiling and we can all laugh about what a terrible experience it was and how we all stuck together as a wonderful group of humanity. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Jeanne Schneider Vargas, October 7, 2026

10/05/2026

MY_FAITH_IN_LOVE
Whether it is my faith in God or my faith in love, it helps me believe in myself. I want to experience the presence and the the power of love, and I want to experience the presence and power of God as goodness and graunds me, that surrounds me and informs my life. Personally, my faith in God has carried me far, but my love for people, my love for pets, my love for the world around me, that helps me preserve through my self helping me, persevere through the most difficult moments and allows me to live lightly during times of ease.

Throughout my life and and I soon will be 79 years old I have grown spiritually, and I’ve come to know God as the power within me. It is this faith I have in God this faith I have in love is also the faith I have in myself. And it’s this belief that helps me dream big and trust I have what it takes to succeed and to carry myself forward into the future. The same same is my comfort that in difficult times I have the wherewithal to recover and to thrive that carries me forward into the future

I remind myself at the beginning of each day that there’s no worldly circumstance greater than love and I place my faith in God and in the love of humanity, the love of animals, the love of places and beautiful country and flowers and trees and all of the nature that surrounds me because during any kind of difficult time, I draw my strength to recover and to thrive. I am reminded of the Bible verse of Matthew 9:29, “According to your faith, let it be done for you.”
~Written by Jeanne Schneider Vargas.

Address

Rock Falls, IL

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Saturday	9am - 5pm
Sunday	9am - 5pm

Website

https://www.mindfulnessineverydayliving.com/

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