Hello~
How are you? Doing well I hope.
So, this is lesson two in the mindfulness class.
Washing the van Vs Cleaning the van
In the last lesson, I talked about washing the van and keeping in the moment. The idea being to have more time by concentrating on the task at hand and not a future activity. Today I want to talk about the difference between washing and cleaning.
There are two ways to wash the van. You wash it to get it clean, or you are washing it to wash it. What? Confused? Don’t worry. Let me explain. In mindfulness, you wash the van to wash the van.
Enjoy life
In the last lesson, I mentioned that we may want to reward ourselves with a beer after washing the van. But we don’t want to rush through washing the van. We don’t want to rush through one activity to get to the next. If you are rushing to get something done, you are not really doing that activity. You are actually on to the next activity. In mindfulness, the idea is to truly enjoy what it is you are doing in that moment. When you can do that, nothing is a chore anymore. And you are more alive when you are living in the moment as you are not skipping over the time you are in, the present.
If you continue to fast forward through out the day, you will never enjoy anything. Even though you are looking forward to the treat of the beer afterward, you will probably not really enjoy it as you will already in your mind be on to the next thing on your list. Learning to enjoy the activity at hand is to enjoy the miracle of life, and to not be pulled into the future.
And a bag of chips
So, you have a bag of chips. When you eat that bag of chips, are you fully enjoying the chips? Are you eating one at a time? Or, do you have your hand on the next chip as you eat the one in your mouth? I tend to want to eat very quickly. I don’t know why, but one of my biggest challenges is to eat slowly. If I were not practicing mindfulness, I would probably eat my entire meal before other people get even half done. I have to slow down just to not be sitting there done eating while others are still eating. This is another example of mindfulness.
When eating, take your time. Take a chip or a bite and enjoy it. If you are eating food with utensils, put down the fork. Don’t play with your food to get the next bite on the fork. And with that bag of chips, don’t pick out the next one. Why? Because if you do you are not living in the moment and you are not truly enjoying the food in your mouth. You are thinking about that next future bite or chip. If you are not eating one bite or one chip at a time, you really are not eating at all.
Practice
Now, practice living in the moment. Wash to wash. Eat to Eat. Drive to drive. Enjoy what you are doing. Keeping a half smile is helpful. Pretend you have a secret. You sort of do, you have the secret of practicing mindfulness.
Let me know how you are doing. www.facebook.com/lisaylifecoach
Yeah!
Lisa Y coaching