Welcome to your mid-week snack break.
This month, we’re exploring the idea of presence, what it means to be present in our lives.
It sounds bonkers, writing that. I mean, why wouldn’t I be present in my life. Right now is all I’ve really got, so where the hell else would I be?
And yet, the truth is. I’m all over the show.
I could be in many millions of places, anywhere from planning, imagining, or replaying a conversation to thinking about dinner to obsessing my future, a new idea, or a pimple.
I’ve begun to pay attention to what I’m paying attention to. When am I here and when am I gone? Where do I go? What distracts me? What pulls me away?
This is an incomplete list/work in progress of my observations.
Times and activities when I’m present:
Intense physical activities (yoga, swimming, difficult hiking, hula hooping)
Drawing/painting
Cooking/baking
Meditating
Writing
Most challenging tasks that require intense concentration
When I’m Off in Lalaland
Showering
Repetitive tasks (folding clothes, peeling potatoes, washing dishes)
Cleaning
Talking on the phone (sorry if you’ve been on the receiving end of this)
Boring crap (checking emails, unsatisfying tasks, stupid stuff)
Your mid-week challenge:
Notice, without judgement, when you’re present and when your brain takes you off on a wee holiday.
What are you doing when you switch off? Where do you go? What brings you back? What triggers you?
You can write this down, or not. The point of this exercise is to begin to get an understanding of where our attention goes when it slips away, and why it doesn’t want to stick around.
Happy exploring. See you on Sunday.