Leaning Into Life
Can you remember what you did one hour ago let alone a whole day ago? Many of us operate on autopilot most every day. We are a society that prides ourselves on being the masters of multi-tasking. If that works for you great, however, if you find that it creates feelings of stress, anxiety, or of being depleted, then I welcome this post as a reminder to stop, drop in and lean into life.
Becoming mindfully aware of what takes you out of balance is the first step and then practicing the act of consciously shifting into a rebalance is next. Mentally take a moment to run through your activities on any given day. What activities deplete you and which ones nourish you? Remember the old saying “ All work and no play makes Jane a dull girl”? Cruising through your day allowing the stressors to steer and spiral is a function of the doing self. Exploring the gaps between doing and being can help guide you in rebalancing your daily life into a more joyful space. There will be aspects of your life that you just can’t change for now but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have choices, and with an awareness of these choices at the moment you may discover unexpected opportunities toward more balance, happiness, peace, and flow.
With an awareness of what activities deplete you and which ones nourish you perhaps by creating a list, you will first have the choice to increase the time you make for those activities that nourish and decrease the time you make for those that deplete. Also, as you pay more attention to the busyness of your day you will have the opportunity to reclaim tiny bits of nourishment, times to transform your thoughts and feelings. For example, you are running errands, when you are at the stoplight, do a mini mindfulness practice by checking in with yourself and returning to your breath as an anchor. Or, you’re at the supermarket feeling stressed, bring yourself into the present moment by dropping into all of your senses. Utilizing all of your senses, become aware of your present experience through your sense of smell, vision, hearing. We all visit the restroom usually first thing in the morning, take that time to rest there a few extra moments and check in with your day, reminding yourself that it will be okay to shift when necessary and top it off with a daily affirmation or 5 things that you are grateful for. Working at your computer all day, step outside, feel the fresh air cold or hot on your skin, smell as you breathe in fresh energy, taking in any nature, like the birds, squirrels, etc. Take a tea/coffee break just the simple act of having a fresh cup even if you return with it to your computer can be enough of a reset. No one else needs to be know that you are practicing mindful awareness. Practicing creates new habits.
The idea is to be more mindful in a way that fills in the cracks creating more nourishing moments. As you lean into this way of mindfulness, the goal is to become better aware of when you’re becoming depleted so that you can shift the balance. As you experience times of stress take a pause and ask, what do I need for myself right now? First, you establish this through the simple act of awareness of being out of alignment and now how can I best take care of myself right at this moment, it might be just a few cleansing breaths? This establishes communication with the essential self that you are not as helpless as you thought and that you are in control, not allowing the thoughts and feelings of hopelessness to invade. Choose an activity that feels appropriate at the time however small that would nourish at that moment. Doing this will begin to reestablish your overall sense of control, joy, and awareness in the practice of shifting your moods. Research has shown that when the mood is low, motivation follows the action, rather than the other way around. When you put action first motivation follows. So even though you’re not motivated to start to do something by establishing an action the motivation will follow for example, instead of tackling an entire room to be organized, create a feeling of mastery by tackling just a corner of the room and the motivation will develop. Or you may have forty emails to answer, maybe plan to answer ten, then step outside for 5 minutes and come in to answer ten more, etc.
Tiny changes in what you do and how you think can fundamentally shift the way you feel. As you work toward regular, bigger shifts in balance practice bringing mindfulness into ordinary activities of daily life. Eating, preparing food, washing the dishes, walking, red lights, showering. Stop and focus reminding yourself to be fully attentive and present while doing these activities. Create your list of enjoyable activities, large and small post them front and center so that you become very familiar with them and update it often. When life becomes stressful and overwhelming the practice of mindfulness, the practice of becoming aware of that stress and overwhelm become opportunities to shift the old habits of thinking into opportunities to be fully awake.
