Mini mindfulness
No deep thoughts here. Just a scribble of insight that came to me while listening to a City Arts & Lectures broadcast with Jon Kabat-Zinn, who developed Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction. He was talking about mindfulness and yoga. Mind you, I had never heard of him before, but I had run across the concept of MBSR.
Now, I don’t pretend to be a yogi or meditator, but I wouldn’t mind having more of either in my life. It struck me, as mindfulness-less as I sometimes feel my life is, I’m no stranger to the pursuit of presence. Some of my favorite things in this world involve being aware.
- knitting
- running
- writing
- drawing
- dancing
- reading
Like yoga and meditation, each one of these activities can transport me into a calmer state of mind. They demand full focus and are made up of a series of little nows. They make life better and have a worth and benefit simply by their doing, not necessarily their end product or output.
Alas, it seems like running is the only one that’s happening with any regularity lately, but that’s ok. It’s a first step, if not several. I may not have enough hours in the day to pursue all of them to mastery, but any time spent doing any one of them is a means to access a more pure, more true me.
And that’s a journey I want to take.
