Isn’t mindfulness just one more thing to do?
Isn’t it one more ball to keep juggling in the air, one more plate to spin on a stick in the circus?
Isn’t it just one more technique to practise and get the hang of and wonder why you are doing it wrong, when everyone else seems to be doing it right – like with meditation, where everyone else has thoughts that drift like clouds and yours sometimes make thunderstorms?
The benefits of mindfulness are to be felt rather than described in words. We can chart a map of what mindfulness is and I can give you a practice for getting there, but to really know what the benefits are they need to be experienced.
Mindfulness is when you stop the juggling, stop the plates spinning, it’s when you stop being the circus act, put down your clown nose,
and just be.
How do you get started?
Ask yourself, ‘what one thing am I doing now?’ and keep your focus there.
Say to yourself ‘Now I am…’ and add whatever you are doing.
Then when your mind wanders and wants to spin all the plates again, bring yourself back to the question:
‘What one thing am I doing now?’
I’ve been doing this during this week in my mothering, in my coaching and now in my blog post writing.
When you do this the real benefit is that when you focus on the right now, all the other stuff is not on your radar, not something you are trying to change….
You are no longer scrambling at like a hamster on a wheel.
You get to do that ‘just one thing’. You get to notice its details and its colours and its beauty and the texture of it.
You get to dive into the moment you are in, as if it was a deep blue pool where the water is warm and the depths are filled with treasure.
Then when you are finished the first thing you ask yourself the question again, and on you go, making footprints of action in the snowscape of time that is your life.
Just one thing
now I am…
making a raspberry omelette for breakfast
pouring the milk
tying the shoelaces
driving on the school run with the story of Sleeping Beauty playing
coaching my client
listening deeply
on and on and on in wonder and noticing.
Practice the question and the answer:
What one thing am I doing now?
Now I am…
Does your life come more into focus?
What happens to your relationships?
Does your child feel that you are more present?
Do you let yourself feel your emotions more?
What does chocolate taste like now?
Try it and report back here in the comments.