The idea of mindfulness seems to be catching on. That's good, but if we're not careful, an idea is where it remains.
To be sure, mindfulness is a concept most of us like: to improve our lives with special contemplative consideration, a method for making saner choices and assuring better outcomes. To actually transform ourselves with the wisdom of mindfulness, we have to start with the lives we're living from the moment we wake each day. We have to bring mindfulness out of our heads and into our homes. That's where ideas become harder to handle.
Here are 10 simple and powerful ways to bring a day of mindful moments into your home.
Wake with the sun - There is no purer light than what we see when we open our eyes first thing in the morning. Resisting the morning's first waking moment instantly adds stress to your day. Avoiding the sun, you commence a chase that lasts all day long: running short of time, balance, peace and productivity.
Sit - Mindfulness without meditation is just a word. The search for mindful living is always grounded in a meditation practice. Seated meditation is the easiest and fastest way to clear your mind of anxious, fearful and stressful thoughts. Meditation puts your overactive brain on a diet, so you have more attention to bring to the real life that appears before you. You will be far more productive in the ensuing hours if you begin the day by spending five minutes actively engaged in doing nothing at all.
Make your bed - The state of your bed is the state of your head. Enfold your day in dignity. The five minutes you spend making your bed slows you down from your frantic, morning scrambling and creates a calm retreat to welcome you home at night. Plus, making your bed means you've already achieved an even more challenging feat: getting out of it.
Empty the hampers - Do the laundry without resentment or commentary and have an intimate encounter with the very fabric of life. Doing laundry is a supreme act of personal responsibility. It requires maturity, attention and discipline, and it engenders happiness. Don't believe me? See how you feel every time you reach the bottom of an empty hamper.
Wash your bowl - Rinse away self-importance and clean up your own kitchen mess. If you leave it undone, it will get sticky. An empty sink can be the single most gratifying sight of a long and tiring day.
Set a timer - If you're distracted by the weight of what's undone, set a kitchen timer and, like a monk in a monastery, devote yourself wholeheartedly to the task at hand before the bell rings. The time you'll find hidden in a kitchen timer unleashes more of your attention to the things that matter most.
Rake the leaves - Take yourself outside to rake, weed or sweep. You'll never finish for good, but you'll learn the point of pointlessness. The repetitive motion is meditative; the fresh air is enlivening. Lose yourself in doing what needs to be done, without a thought of permanent outcome or gain. You'll immediately alter your worldview.
Eat when hungry - Align your inexhaustible desires with the one true appetite. Coming clean about our food addictions and aversions is powerful and lasting medicine. Eating is so central to family life and culture that we can pass on our habits for generations to come. Mindless overeating feeds our sickness; mindful eating feeds the body's intuitive, intelligent wisdom and nourishes life well past tonight's empty plates.
Let the darkness come - Set a curfew on the Internet and TV and discover the natural balance between daylight and darkness, work and rest. Your taste for the quiet will naturally increase. When you end your day in accord with the earth's perfect rhythm, you grant the whole world a moment of pure peace.
Sleep when tired - Nothing more to it.
Follow Karen Maezen Miller on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kmaezenmiller
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And yes..energy does ofllow thought..but our thoughts are influenced by the energy of what is around us. Clearing clutter, restoring order and habit actually allows new energy and creativity to flow freely.
K
Thanks for the reminders!
Yes, do what needs to be done. BUT, something I often see is, women wind up doing a lot of the things that "never get totally done," that must redone again in a short time, over and over again -- many of the very things you cite here (laundry, dishes, making beds, etc.) while the man gets more time to build and repair things the result of which can be appreciated and used for years.
A "mindful home" should include the opportunity for all to be mindful in these ways in order to allow all to have time to be "mindful" about the act of creating something that will be around more than 6 inutes or 6 hours to enjoy.
A "mindful home" will also include tolerance of each other's priorities for "orderliness." When an unmade bed or paperwork left on a table due to demands of daily life becomes more important that a kind word for meeting the needs of that busy day, then being "mindful" (e.g., of others' need for kindness or encouragement as they meet your needs) takes on a whole different meaning.
T. Lavon Lawrence
NCMFT-Certified Mental Fitness Trainer
www.youtube.com/dynamicmentalfitness
Another would be "wellness." How about "health?"
This article is full of good advice. Dailiness can be meditative or it can be the most boring, numbing, aggravating, oh never mind. It is too annoying even to write about.
Mindfulness, my eye.
Also using the term "woman's work" is extremely sexist. You wouldn't make comments like this if you weren't bitter and unhappy.
And I'm not bitter, nor unhappy. I'm raging mad, say it like it is, don't let people tell me what to do, don't spend too much time on mindless chores, and I'm very happy about it.
By A Course In Miracles .OM.