Practicing mindfulness
Ihad my flu shot. I take massive doses of Vitamin C. I exercise every day. I also thought I manage my daily stress well.
But may be not! For over a month, I have been fighting a bug or bugs relentless to conquer my immune system. A couple of days off work got me to thinking about many things affecting my health and my desire to discover the best version of me. Away from the daily fighting fires at work, and constant problem-solving thought exhaustion, I had a chance to practice mindfulness in quiet isolation.
Finding focus, calmness and feelings of well being is a bit of a challenge with episodic hard cough and congested breathing. It was also hard to quiet my worried mind thinking about what I am missing at work that needs my attention. Calming the mind is easier said than done. But I had nothing else to do. After loading myself with cough suppressant, the moments of quite allowed me to focus on my breathing. I focused on the
air coming in and out of my nostrils. I colored the air inhaled in orange, and gray exhaled out. I don’t know why the colors, but it made it more interesting. It helped quiet my worried mind. I feel asleep.
A special edition of
National Geographic
magazine highlighting the benefits of every day mindfulness was my inspiration. Life happens, illness happens, accidents happens, good things happen, and bad things happen. All these things happen outside of your control. The only control you have is how you respond to these things happening. As much as you do not want to be sick, you get sick. I found that practicing mindfulness while you’re sick is a much better option than feeling sorry for yourself or feeling angry at the bug that made you sick. Yes, you can give mindfulness a try, just for fun! The National Geographic experts identified ten qualities of mindfulness:
• Awareness — be aware of the present momentto-moment flow of your immediate experience. When you are present, you are aware.
• Beginner’s mind — see things as if you are seeing them for the first time with openness, receptivity, and curiosity. Seeing with a fresh eye can bring back a sense of wonder and awe to people, situations, and moments that have become ordinary — which then invites gratitude and joy.
• Acceptance — develop the capacity and willingness to see things as they really are. Let go of judgment.
•Insight — be open for the ‘aha’ moment of clarity. Awareness of the cause and effect in everything that you do helps you develop wisdom and personal growth.
• Impermanence — be reminded that nothing is permanent in nature. Connect, savor, and enjoy your life as it was and as it is in each moment.
• Equanimity — develop the ability to just be aware of what is going on around you — bad or good — without being swept away by it. When you cultivate equanimity, life’s everyday problems won’t overwhelm you as much.
• Interconnection — recognize that we are dependent on each other and be aware of how we affect our habitat and those around us.
• Compassion — develop sympathetic consciousness of other’s suffering with the desire to alleviate it. Compassion generates generosity.
• Gratitude — direct your attention to what is good and be thankful. Feeling that you have enough also inspires you to be more generous.
•Joy — recognize what brings you joy and what blocks it.
I am feeling better already. Today, I will be practicing more to develop my mindfulness qualities. It beats feeling sorry for myself.