Well we're all ofay with the constancy of hearing about mindfulness and presence and being in the moment of now. It's definately the thing, front and centre, and rightly so. Where we've conditioned a 'doing' mentality and are always on the go in some form, it is about time that we began to slow down, take stock of the present moment and sometimes, just breathe. I love the idea of what I call white space. That's where you look at your calendar and actually see 'white space', meaning there's nothing written in or scheduled. White space is so essential, and even moreso today than perhaps ever before.
Our pace of life is faster, the opportunity for distraction and disconnect is greater, and we are pulled in many more directions than at one time. Often, and unknowingly, we are craving a kind of 'coming home', back to ourselves and our centre of power. We yearn for a re-calibration and a reset. Somehow, we've for the most part, managed to align success and achievement and even our sense of worth and self esteem around the notion of doing-ness. We are constantly on the go and even have trouble intentionally just taking pause and being. We tend to resist the 'being with ourselves' and allowing the 'not doing' to be what we also do. It's a real mindset tweak for sure. But one worth the effort.
A busy mind and a constant activity can put us out of balance and also lead to a disconnect from our inner compass and wisdom. Higher insight and clarity reside within us all but the voice of this wisdom only speaks in a whisper and so we can only hear it if we slow down and quieten down. But this is no small thing. On one hand it's the conditioning and busyness practise getting in the way as we rehearse and forge a strong pattern of 'doing all the time'. On the other hand it's about opening up to deeper parts of ourselves and allowing the space for whatever to flow and reveal itself. Again, that's no small thing!
We yearn for a re-calibration and a reset. But one that we can access more readily and regularly versus just when we go on holiday where we more automatically allow ourselves to exhale and just be. Imagine if you could summon a sense of 'holiday' every day and just unplug, even for a short time. How much more efficient and productive and energised etc might you be? It begs the question.
I especially love the metaphor of our phones. We plug it into a socket to re-charge it, often daily, and sometimes even turn it off completely for a reboot to enable it to function effectively, so why not ourselves? What if we could also plug into something that allows for our own recharge and reset of sorts, and even on a daily basis? And what if all you had to do was just agree with yourself to just pause for a while every day. Channel the notion that you are in fact a human being first and park the human doing part ;-)
So where to begin.
Well you don't have to be an avid meditator or anything. Don't even call it that if it helps as for many people the word itself conjures up notions of sitting on a mountain in a bubble for hours in silence and the like. Of course, there's an extreme to everything, but I like to start with the low lying fruit. If you're just getting started with slowing down and taking pause, then just aim to sit for even 5 minutes, close your eyes and just breathe. Over time, you may like to stretch the time and go a little bit longer. There doesn't have to be a rigid rule or schedule about it, but rather seek to integrate the idea of doing it at all. And note that that's already a win. And not only do you benefit from the stillness and silence, but also the embedded reframe of what a win looks like. You begin to embrace that success might also take the form of a balanced and calmer, less harried and less stressful existence. Now there's an idea!