How can we find more time in a day?
On a recent elephant journal Facebook Live broadcast, Waylon talked about mindful walking. He asked if there were any ways readers could suggest for others to slow down and connect with the present moment.
It got me thinking; life is busy. We’re all in a rush. There never seem to be enough hours in the day, enough days in the week, to accomplish all the things we feel compelled or drawn to do. It’s all too common to be whisked away from the now by our thoughts.
There’s nothing wrong with contemplating or planning, but if we find ourselves constantly wondering where the time has gone, perhaps finding moments of mindfulness among the hustle and bustle will give the sense that we are present for the time we spend.
I recalled two of my favorite mindful techniques—glimpses of what it is to be fully awake. In these brief moments, the world seems clearer, time a little slower, and life is altogether less crazy.
Use your senses. Close your eyes and experience the environment through your other senses. Hear, smell, feel and taste the surroundings. When you open your eyes, allow your vision to readjust, to see what you didn’t see there before.
Change your perspective. Another technique for mindfully experiencing our environment is to change our perspective. Lie down in a spot (somewhere safe, of course), that you normally wouldn’t. Climb up on something you normally wouldn’t. Get up close to things, like the pine needles on a branch, pick up a rock from the ground and see the different colors or textures it’s made of.
There are so many moments in our day when we are busily going about a task while our mind is somewhere else, often contemplating the next task, or an old conversation, or making up stories about what might or could be in our lives. We miss out on the feel of the knife sliding through the flesh of a tomato, we don’t notice the gentle buzz of a bee in a nearby flower, we don’t see the dazzling colors displayed in a beautiful sunset.
Now, take a deep breath. One big, full, rib moving breath, and see if for just a moment you can see, hear, smell, feel, taste what is right here, right now.
Author: Jill Tarnoff
No comments:
Post a Comment