The mindfulness challenge this week is admittedly onerous and difficult. If you choose to accept the challenge of the week you will indeed find it to be perplexing and frustrating. You will likely find that you repeatedly forget to actually do what I’m about to suggest.
The focus of the mindfulness exercise this week is on transitions as you move from one space to another. We are in continuous transitions in our life. Because most of us are continually anticipating the future, we miss the experience of the actual transition moment. We are anticipating what we will encounter in the room we are about to enter rather than fully and completely experiencing the transition from one space to the next.
The challenge is the following. For each door that you encounter throughout the week, stop before you open the door. Take a breath in and out. Then open the door and enter the new space. You may well encounter as many as two hundred doors in a single day. You may well forget to stop, take a breath and then open the door for half, three-fourths or who knows, all of the doors that you encounter in any given day, but give it a try.
Accept this as a fun challenge anyway. Each and every door that you encounter that is closed,
Stop
Take a slow breath in – then out
Open the door
Enter the new space mindfully.
Have fun with the onerous and difficult challenge of the week as you begin the most rewarding of all challenges to become present in each and every moment of your life. May you have a magnificent week opening and closing doors of your life.
Did you take my suggestion earlier in the week and look at yourself in the mirror? I did. What did you discover? What were your observations?
I’ll tell you what mine were. As I looked, I saw my receding hairline and I zeroed in on my wrinkles. Every time I look in the mirror I worry about that receding hairline. I think to myself the same thought,
“Oh my goodness, I think it’s receding even more this month. I’m not going to have any hair left in just a year or two.”
What were your worries? How did you expand and expound upon what you observed to be evidence of aging when you looked at yourself in the mirror?
I’ve got a big secret for you and it goes something like this. If I take what worries me – in my case my receding hairline – and I ask a loved one,
“So, what do you think about my receding hairline? Doesn’t it just drive you crazy?”
What do you suppose they’re going to say? I can tell you in an instant. They are going to say,
“Huh? What? What do you mean receding hairline? I like your receding hairline. I think it’s distinguished. I don’t look at that and think oh my God you’re getting older. That’s not how I interpret that whatsoever.”
Perhaps I’m going to be brazen and I’ll then just stretch my point a bit, “But what about my wrinkles?” You know what I’m likely to hear? The response is more than likely going to be,
“What wrinkles?”
Perhaps I might want to press even further.
“You know, I’ve got more and more wrinkles on my forehead.” Very likely the response I’m going to hear is,
“Hmm, I hadn’t noticed any wrinkles on your forehead.”
You see, others tell us the truth of the meaning that we attribute to aging. We are very adept at creating stress in our life for reasons that do not even exist!
The reality is everything around us including our bodies, is aging. There is simply no way around it. If we zero in at any point in our lives we can likely recall similar anxieties about our body falling apart.
Go back to the time when you were five years old. Your body was changing then too. You may very likely have had a thought at the age of five of missing something all of a sudden that you liked about your body the month before. We seem to always be judging what it is that we think we see about ourselves. Those judgments almost always have no merit and no meaning to others whatsoever.
Everything around us is aging and changing. It is the way of the world and has always been the way of the world.
There is birth.
There is life.
There is death.
If we continue to live our lives by making assessments of how bad it is that certain trappings of aging are evident we are discrediting the beauty of what life is all about.
Better yet, cast all of those judgments aside for they have no meaning whatsoever to others. Take in the essence of whatever is encountered. Consider looking at yourself again in the mirror – as will I – and ask yourself,
“What’s here now? Look at this! What’s here now?”
Take in the essence, the beauty and the miracle of what you see.
Aging is something that will always be here for us, for others and for every living entity in the world. Stop fighting it. Take in the full essence of all that is. When you do just that, you will find your life force will explode. Cast out the judgments that block the explosion of your life force.
Let your life force flourish by being present each moment,
Accepting
Reveling
Celebrating
Admiring
All that is in this quite magnificent place that we live called planet earth.
Start with yourself this week as I invite you to track evidence of aging, moment to moment, day to day. When I say start with your self, the next time that you look at yourself in a mirror ask yourself:
“How have I been aging recently? Do I have a wrinkle or two more than I could remember before? Do I have a gray hair or two more than I can remember just last month? Are my eyelids droopy? Is my jaw sagging?”
Look at yourself; go ahead and be critical if you want and just ask yourself the question,
“How have I been aging?”
Record your observations if you will – whatever observations you would like to make about your own aging. Then put that record of observations aside.
For the remainder of the week collect evidence of aging that can be found throughout your world. For example,
Notice paint on walls. Detect evidence of paint that may be fading or chipping.
Notice dogs. Every dog you pass, ask yourself, “What’s the evidence of aging here? Does this dog have gray hair. Perhaps they are having a problem keeping up with their owner during the walk?
Notice evidence of aging in trees. What evidence is there of aging in trees that you are drawn to observe? Is there moss growing on the branches ? Are the branches ragged with age?
Notice vegetables in your refrigerator. Vegetables spoil when left uneaten.
Notice expiration dates on products that you purchase at the store. Many food products have expiration dates because past a certain point the food spoils.
Notice neon signs that might have letters missing. After all, the neon signs did not have letters missing when they were new. Now that they have aged it is very common for neon signs to have a flicker in a letter or two or a letter that refuses to lite up.
Notice the petals on flowers which are wilting. Flowers are beautiful but they never last forever.
Notice the fruit that you eat this week. If left uneaten, fruit eventually rots and discolors.
Notice cars. Clearly some cars are new; they have just been manufactured. Other cars are decades old and have significant evidence of rust.
Acknowledge all evidence of aging as you go through your daily routine this week, minute by minute, day by day throughout the entire week.
And be sure to have fun as you assume the role of a meticulous detective who has a keen eye toward tracking evidence of aging in pretty much everything you encounter.
