MINDFULNESS

A friend of mine turned me on to an app for my phone called "The Mindfulness Bowl." Randomly, about every hour a wonderful sound emits from my phone. It is the sound of a Tibetan bowl ringing. This ring is to remind me to stop, see if I am really experiencing the moment for what is truly going on, and if not, come into the moment and be one with it. Too often I find myself out in the future. I have found that many of my clients are that way too, as well as many are dwelling in the past. Then there are those special few who truly do live in the present moment. But for me it is not an easy place to stay. Thus the phone app.

Yesterday I was visiting with a friend who lives much more in the moment than me. It was the first time she was experiencing my new home and I found my mouth was going a mile a minute to tell her about an experience I'd had with moving, or where I bought a piece of furniture, or what painting I was going to put where. I was going way too fast for her and she kept having to stop me and back me up so she could experience the moment for exactly what it was. She was reminding me that I need to slow down and breath in the moment also. With my recent jobs and my move, etc. I realize I have sped up time. Now I want to slow it back down. Starting today I'm going to begin the practice of mindfulness as often as I can remember. Mindfulness is a Buddhist practice. It is about having a calm awareness of one's body functions, feelings, content of consciousness, or consciousness itself. In therapy I teach my clients to become aware of the feelings in the body, from the butt on the chair to the air moving through their nostrils, to the sensations in their toes. I ask them to look around them and describe the colors and the items they see. I ask them to describe the taste in their mouth, describe the texture of the fabric of the furniture or their clothing and describe any fragrances or smells they notice. It's about taking a moment to truly pay attention to the senses and what they are speaking to us. For as Albert Einstein once said, "There is more to life than increasing its speed."