Day 6

Continuing my 21 Meditation Experience, Day 6 was going deeper into present moment awareness. Deepak says “You must be present to give and receive love.” He continues, saying “If you are angry or gossiping, you are not in awareness.” He suggests taking a few deep breaths to get back to the present anytime you are not in awareness.

In my journaling that day wrote down three things that take me out of present moment awareness. They were:

Multitasking
Worry
Interruptions

I think I’ve talked about the fact that there in no such thing as multitasking. SINGLE tasking was my goal. As often as possible. I will actually pay attention to what I’m doing, or more importantly, pay attention to whomever I’m speaking to. Most often, my children. Instead of reading, writing, creating my to-do list or whatever it is I’m doing while my children are talking, my focus now is to stop what I’m doing and LISTEN to them with my full attention. Not half way. Single tasking. Multitasking is a habit that made me feel so accomplished. Look at me getting it all done so efficiently! But the truth is multitasking results in two (or more) things being done poorly instead of one thing being done well. It’s tempting to multitask. This is one I’m always working on. If I keep coming back to the “why”, then it’s easier to do.

Worry absolutely was taking me out of the present moment. There is no anxiety in the present moment. So, if I was worrying about something that could happen in the future, or a past hurt, that will create unnecessary stress. If I caught myself doing that, I would refocus my attention to the now.

Interruptions are inevitable. But I could try to minimize them as much as possible. If I had something I want to do uninterrupted I try to plan to do it either when no one else was home or when I was alone elsewhere. This would decrease the times someone needed mom or my husband had a question about something or just wanted to chat. I especially like uninterrupted reading time. And my favorite place to read is outdoors. I find it so relaxing. If I wanted to spend a significant amount of time writing, I also try to do this when no one else is home. Having an interruption when in the flow of writing is frustrating and can take me out of my thoughts and it can take a while to get back to where I was before the interruption.

How do you stay present? Try the following:

Ask yourself what takes you out of present moment awareness?

How can you make changes in your life to minimize interruptions?

Can wait to hear your comments! Thanks for being here!