Stay-home ordeal. What’s the deal?
The stay-home ordeal is pretty common now to most of us. Becoming more familiar does not mean “house arrest” is more enjoyable. It doesn’t mean we like it any more. Maybe we’re not even more used to it although it is familiar.
Staying home is not unusual. Staying home 24/7 is unusual. Not going to work happens occasionally. Not going to work for the foreseeable future has become The Occasion. The grocery being out of shredded cheddar cheese is ok. The grocery being out of bread and dishwashing liquid and coffee filters is not ok.
Stir crazy, cabin fever, locked in, imprisoned are phrases used (and heard and read) more often than ever.
I invite you to use the Comment option and offer your own ways to shift from the thought of “stay-home ordeal”. How are you making it an acceptable deal, if not a really good deal? What are you doing that may be a Big Deal?
Every day this week, I will post suggestions that have worked for me or that others have found successful and have shared. Try them out if you want and please share your feedback. Now is the time to let others hear from you!
Start your day with mindfulness
Mindfulness means to pay attention on purpose in the present moment non-judgmentally. The applied definition is to keep yourself alive in (alert to) the present moment. My favorite definition of mindfulness is that it is the capability to know what we already know is actually happening as it is happening.
I’ve meditated almost everyday for years. I had never really taken up mindfulness meditation. Then I learned that mindfulness doesn’t have to occur as formal meditation. It doesn’t require sitting lotus-like or forcing all thoughts out of my head or counting my breath, my mala beads or my om chants. (Actually, meditation does not require those things either.)
It is easy to practice mindfulness exercises anytime, anywhere. I took up mindfulness practices early this year. My Like I Want It to Be post hints why. From the mindfulness practices, I’ve known a wonderful. tangible combination of calm, focus, and energy. I believe they are direct results of increasing my mindfulness.
So what good does it do to be alert to the present moment when the present moment is the stay-home ordeal? The moment is not the ordeal. Nor is the ordeal the moment. The moment is what is happening, not what you are feeling. That’s worth a lot of discussion. (Jon Kabat-Zinn gives offers more than 600 words in Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World through Mindfulness.)
For now, I suggest you pick one of the activities below. Try it for three days in a row. Try it as many times a day as you wish. Let us hear if/how it works. Or doesn’t.
I’ve tried these practices. I still practice all of them frequently. I don’t recommend one over another. The breathing practice is first merely because breathing will be part of any mindfulness.
Breathe
Stand or sit comfortably. Promise yourself to let nothing external interrupt you for one minute, or two or three if it feels good. Breathe in slowly, deeply through your nose. Notice the action, the sensation. Hold the breath for a couple of seconds. Breathe out more slowly. Notice the action, the sensation. Be sure to breathe out completely. Again. Again for as long as you wish.
View an object
Choose an uncomplicated object: a coffee cup, for instance, rather than a cathedral. It will be easier if it is not moving. Relax your vision. Rather than searching for every specific detail, allow the object to flow into and fill your vision. Then let your eyes wander leisurely over the object. This is neither a test of your visual perception nor a measure of your visual memory. It is just a viewing. View it until you’ve finished viewing.
Hold an object
Hold an object
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Pick an object that fits comfortably in your hand(s). It may be something which has emotional meaning for you; it does not have to. Close your eyes. Allow your hand, your mind, your heart to engage with whatever you are holding. Shape. Size. Temperature. Texture. Angles. This isn’t any sort of test, either. It is your opportunity to pay attention in the present moment non-judgmentally to what you already know is happening.
A Prayer for Peace and Goodness in our Stay-Home Ordeal
Power and Peace and Presence, this opportunity we have now
is only as much ordeal as we choose it to be.
Thank you for allowing us to breath the opportunity
of power in our present moment, to feel the presence
of peace in our hands and in our heart and in our head.
to see presence of all that is suggested by the beauty
of all we see, no matter how small or large, no matter
how simple or complex.
Thank you that we have the blessing of home,
a place to stay and to know your presence, peace and power.
And so it is. And so we thank you, Spirit.
Amen
Love and Blessings,
6 April 2020
In: Happiness, Inner Peace, Mindfulness, Peace · Tagged with: creativity, Mindfulness, Peace, praying, Presence
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