The power of meditation and the silliness of serendipity

Today while waiting in line at Sprouts to buy my lunch I decided to be mindful - to focus on the present moment, kindly, nonjudgmentally taking note of my feelings and thoughts, and do a little walking (standing in line) meditation. As I took my first deep breath and allowed my focus to set in on my state of being I could feel anxiety rising in my belly.  I had looked over at the other line that I didn't get into and noticed that it was shorter.  I looked over again and the person I would have been behind was being rung up while I still had two people in front of me.  I heard the thought, I should have gotten into the other line. I focused on my breath and the anxiety; I noticed jealousy, jealous of the few extra minutes that my alternate-reality self would have had. Thoughts and feelings swam around, thought, I had made a mistake, I was missing out.  These feelings and thoughts were powerful reminders of how often I operate outside of the present moment.  I focused in on the present moment noticing the clerk at the register in front of me checking a $100 bill she had been given for authenticity. Then the person in front of me was being served. I stayed focused on my breath. And now I am here present with the clerk.

As I turned to leave I was looking down at my wallet and I had to stop as I almost ran into the person leaving from the other register.  It was the woman I would have been behind, the one that had gotten to the register while I was still waiting in my line.  I left her pass in front of me and a smile burst across my face. How silly of me to have worried in the first place, I had chosen the faster line (and missed out on an extra minute or two of meditation).

How often do you . . .

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How often do you take a bite of food and masticate intentionally, slowly, deliberately?

How often do you put another bite of food in your mouth before the first bite is finished?

How often do you deliberate on what finished means? Are you done when there's no more chewing? Are you done when you swallow the last morsel? And how long do you wait before taking the next bite? How often are you present in that moment, as you swallow, feeling the food move down your esophagus while savoring the aftertaste?

How often do you lick your lips? How often are you present in the moment, focused attentively on chewing, tasting, savoring, and swallowing?

I encourage you to get a glass (or bottle) of cool (or cold) and take a big sip, and close your eyes as the water runs down your esophagus and into your stomach, and focus on the sensation of the cool liquid. In every moment there is beauty, uniqueness, a lesson. In every moment. How many lessons do we miss every minute, every hour, every day?

How often do you eat, chewing unconsciously, swallowing bite after bite, shoveling food into your mouth while your mind is on other tasks? How often do you ignore your present moment? How often do you ignore your body and its needs and its experience? How often do your mind and body act in unison?

Interesting and informative articles and links related to mindful eating:
What is mindful eating - zen habits
Mindful Eating as Food for Thought - NY Times
The Surprising Benefits of Mindful Eating - Huffington Post
6 Ways to Practice Mindful Eating - mindful

Embrace the Eternity

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Sometimes during the first few moments of meditation I get a feeling of overwhelming eternity — this moment, these seconds, feel like they are lasting forever, as my thoughts race and my mind keeps telling me that I need to be doing other things, anything, something else other than sitting here breathing.

How long did I set my timer for? How many minutes will I be sitting here, doing nothing? If these first few seconds feel so long and unendurable, how is the rest of this meditation going to feel? Is this really the most important thing for me to be doing right now!?!

Embrace the eternity — the empty space that our mind fills with thoughts and worries. The pain that rises out of the darkness. Embrace it. As unbearably long as it may feel, this moment is fleeting. Every moment, every group of moments, will pass, eventually, inevitably.

Turn into it, lean into your discomfort. Like an empty desk, a mind with a sense of never ending time is key to creation and ideation — it is a precursor to the deep work that will lead to breakthroughs.

Embrace the space, with no phone calls, no checking of emails or statuses, no comments or likes; embrace the space where thoughts will rush in and where we can embrace and accept each thought, and clear out our cache, clear a space in our mind for deep work.

Embrace the eternity of the moment.

Breath

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One of my major goals in practicing mindfulness, both through meditation and Tai Chi, is to help restore my body’s natural flow of breath, to maintain healthy relaxed deep breathing throughout my day.

Breathing is the most important action of our lives, everyday, every minute, every moment. I have regularly practice deep belly breathing as my main breathing method, imagining my belly filling from the bottom up (and out) as I inhale and emptying from the top down as I exhale. Recently one of my favorite acupuncturists gave me a new visualization for my breathing practice.

When you inhale imagine an empty balloon in your stomach expanding out in all three dimensions, all six directions — out and back, up and down, left and right. Especially focus on the expansion backwards as you inhale, gently messaging your kidneys, adrenal glands, and lower spine. As you exhale slowly, imagine the expanded balloon shrinking again in all thee dimensions until it is shriveled and empty. The acupuncturist stated that this focus on gently messaging your adrenal glands, lower back, and kidneys, can help to reduce anxiety and stress — both of which I have been struggling with lately.

Since I have consistently focused on mindfulness and breathing practice I have been more able to maintain deeply breathing during stressful and intense interactions at work, and this allows me to stay more present in my cortex, to better avoid getting caught up in impulsive, emotional, and unconscious reactions to events.

My next step is making this happen for my life at home. For some reason I am still allowing myself to get carried away and caught in quick unconscious reactions in my home — getting angry and yelling at my family members sometimes. I find myself cursing gravity when things are clearly out of my control. My next intentional practice is mindful parenting. Breath, relax, and note that it is all going to be okay.