Sunday Morning -- time for a little coffee and a little writing

In the middle of a very busy weekend so I am going to take just a little time to write.  I feel the need to write about mindfulness this morning.  Mindfulness is a practice of working daily to be in the present.  To be deliberate about watering seeds of kindness, joy, and love.

I feel the need to write this down because I haven't done that very much in the last few weeks.  It has been very hard to not stay in the moment.  To worry and fret about the future, about others, about myself.  I was once told that worry is a form of control - and since I do it a lot - and there are those that feel like I am a control freak - what? - it doesn't surprise me that I worry and fret.

An example in my current meditation book "The Miracle of Mindfulness" discusses washing dishes.  When we talk about "being in the moment or the present" one would not think that it would be while we are washing dishes.  But Thich Nhat Hanh says that even the smallest task, like washing the dishes, should be done in the present.  For a person that uses housework as a way to process and ponder life's challenges, this statement freaks me out a bit.  "while washing the dishes one should be completely aware of the fact that one is washing the dishes.  At first glance, that might seem a little silly (YA THINK?): why put so much stress on a simple thing?"  But that is his point:  ".....being completely myself, following my breath, conscious of my presence, and conscious of my thought and actions".  It seems incredibly silly to think of this simple task as mindful, but the mindfulness practice can begin with that mundane task.  And as I type this I realize he wouldn't be very happy with me calling any task throughout the day as "mundane".  All tasks and thoughts have their place whether big or small.

Mindfulness is "taking hold of one's breath".  I have been trying (some times not very successfully) to pay attention to my breath.  I know that when I am stressed or upset, my breath is shorter and quicker.   This then leads to tense muscles and less cleansing breaths.  THUS, I need a massage and an O2 tank this week.  Hanh says "breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again."  Breath is a "tool to build up concentration power.  Concentration power is the strength which comes from practicing mindfulness."

Does that mean that lack of concentrated breathing means lack of focus and concentration?  If so, then that would explain a lot.  How many of us have done the whole "walk into a room and not remember what you went in there for"?  How many of us feel unfocused and disconnected throughout the week?  Could this be solved by systematic breathing through awareness of our breath (meditation....)?

Meditation looks different than what we have in our brain.  It doesn't have to be sitting in the "lotus" position with our eyes closed humming "OHM".  Standing at the sink doing dishes and paying attention to our breath and nothing else in our lives except the dishes at that particular moment.

OLD HABITS are hard to break.  So I plan to take it slow -- too much multi-tasking -- when I do the dishes, I do the dishes.  When I fold laundry, I fold laundry.  Nothing else in my day will insert itself in my brain.  WOW.......this is going to be hard!  Okay - here we go.  BREATHE IN.........BREATH OUT.........focus on just what I am doing, not all those lists in my head or those hundreds of worries that I have in my brain or those many things that I have NO control over.