What would a mindful month look like for you?
Maybe you practice washing dishes without thinking about anything, just feeling warm soapy water and the shape of the bowl.
Maybe you listen to your partner with your whole body, not thinking a bunch of thoughts about what they’re saying. Just listening completely, being fully present.
Maybe it’s pausing to look at the crocus that’s coming up, noticing the purple color and the bees buzzing around them. Or maybe just feeling the warm spring sun on your face and body.
Maybe it’s intentionally stopping at some point in each day, perhaps sitting with a cup of tea, without any agenda – no thinking, no planning, no doing (radical, right?). Just noticing what you’re seeing and hearing and tasting – feeling the shape of the couch or chair. Noticing the textures on your skin and feet. Just mindful of the exact nature of this moment. There will never be another one exactly like this one – EVER.
What would it be like to practice not-thinking? Are you wondering what that even is?
Think of a thought as an event. It has a beginning, middle and end, unless it generates another thought and you’re swept up into that. When the thought is over, you’re in awareness. In awareness, you have sensory information: what you’re seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, feeling on your skin, and sensing internally, like your breath.
What would it be like to spend a little more time in awareness and a little less time thinking?
This, in essence, is mindfulness. I hope you’ll try it.
Michelle Stortz 