Rushing Calmly…..sounds like a nice concept doesn’t it?
The more I learn and experience Mindfulness the more I see that rushing calmly is possible. I have felt it and tried to maintain it best I can so my world doesn’t feel rushed and that I am missing out on ‘life’. It has become apparent that when asking people ‘How are you?’, it has changed from the automatic ‘good’ to ‘busy’. We are finding ourselves surrounded by social media that has us always ‘switched on’. Where is the slowing down to rest the mind and body?
Mindfulness when experienced offers an element of staying in touch, by that I mean staying present and being with what’s happening right now. When we get caught up in our thinking, we can notice that invariably it is not about the present, it has something to do with the past or future. Not a wrong thing to do, but when we get caught up into it, it can create a busy mind, therefore less focus on the present (or task we are undertaking) which has us thinking…gees I’m busy, I can’t stop, I want to stop. If I mentioned that you don’t have to stop anything that you are doing or letting things go that you enjoy, but have the sense of calm while undertaking the rushing, would that feel good?
Here are my 3 steps towards ‘Rushing Calmly’
1. Breath
The breath holds the important initial key to rushing calmly. By noticing when you take that extra deep breath, it is bringing you back to the present offering a reset/recentre to continue on. The breath is the anchor, when you find yourself lost in thought or consumed by the busyness, turn your attention to the breath and really feel it move through your body.
2. Attention Switching
You know when you have 2-5 things on the go all at once? Where is your attention? it’s generally flitting between each task – therefore nothing really has your full attention. When you next have a few things on the go at once, attention switch. Stop one task and move to the next task, then back to the first task – but doing it intentionally. Everything will still get done, but you are doing each task with attention rather than either auto pilot or with half focus.
3. Ask yourself ‘What’s happening for me right now?’
Bringing awareness to your mind and body offers wonderful feedback to what’s happening for you. When busy kicks in, we tend to lose or not notice what is actually happening in mind or body (except that we are busy and rushing). Acknowledging the rushing feeling or sense of un-calm can help bring you back to regroup and breathe and put your attention on the one task at one time. ‘What’s happening for me right now’ can be done as a check in throughout your day.
The breath, focussing on one task at a time and checking in with what’s happening for you right now – will offer the element of being present, more attentive to yourself and noticing what’s happening for you. Once you notice that, you can then make changes on how you see, feel, are in those moments.
I am an advocate for self care, and that involves going within and looking at how we are, what we need and how we go about getting it. Mindfulness for me has been great for my self care as I can utilise it at anytime, I don’t rely on anybody else, I can come back to the breath, acknowledge, reset/regroup and continue my way of ‘Rushing Calmly’.
I would love to hear how this goes for you, and whether you are able to rush calmly in your day to day.
Workshops are available, and day and half day programs can be tailored for workplaces to experience Mindfulness. Integrating into your every day and offering yourself that self care, that will then benefit your family/workplace and most of all YOURSELF.
For information you can email eryka@mindfullyyou.com.au
May you be that much closer to rushing calmly
Eryka