Monday, January 12, 2015

Baby Steps

In my quest to give up multitasking and be mindful in everything, it is important to acknowledge the failures and celebrate the small victories along the way.  I am all too familiar with failure - just the other day, I caught myself only half tuning in on a phone call because I was trying to read something at the same time - the bad news: my addiction to and dependence on technology exacerbates this failing, the good news: I actually realized I was doing it and so I could choose to stop!  A very tiny victory, to be sure, but still a baby step of progress.   Being aware, mindful, helps me to live more fully and see the choices I am making in each moment - and therefore to call into question whether I have chosen the best way to spend that moment.  I think most of us, certainly I do it, live on autopilot a lot of the time.  Have you ever had the experience while driving along a familiar monotonous road that you suddenly become aware that you don't know exactly where you are because your mind has been engaged elsewhere? I have and it is terrifying to think I have been operating a couple of tons of machinery with such casual indifference.  How much more terrifying is it to realize you have been coasting through a day, a week, a lifetime, on autopilot - doing, but not really living?  Being mindful in relationships with people is challenging but the solution and focus is at least obvious: just stop.  and listen...fully.
Blessings,
Janet

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