How little time we spend in the present. The screens in our homes and in our pockets all work to keep our thoughts on other places and other people. Distraction has a way of making us blind to our blessings, to our happiness.
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh wrote,
”Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes.”
How do we find our way back to the happiness of the present moment?
1) Make “presence” a family value. Insist on dinners together and keep them unplugged and screen-free. Taste your food. Talk about the day. Listen to one another. Grow comfortable with awkward silences.
Consider detoxing from screens for a whole Saturday or even a whole weekend. Be fully present to the people and events in your life.
2) Set aside time to sit quietly near the Christmas tree lights or menorah. Bask in the glow of your surroundings.
3) Bundle up after dark and walk through your neighborhood looking at holiday lights. Take it slow. Listen to your footsteps on the sidewalk, the sounds of traffic, dogs barking. Linger.
4) Give yourself a holiday from shopping. Materialism, and its sword, advertising, are the cold adversaries of mindfulness. They create in us a sense of lack. This lack propels us to focus on material fulfillment, a future-oriented value, and spurs us towards constant activity and consumption.
The EmpowHer article, Compulsive Shopping – The Closeted Addiction, gives insight into the mind-body relationship of excessive shopping and some tools to help curb the compulsion.
5) Head out the door for a day sledding, snow shoeing or hiking with the extra time and money you might otherwise have spent shopping.
A study cited on WebMd has found that “a walk in the country reduces depression in 71% of participants.” There is mounting scientific evidence of a connection between time spent in nature and an improvement in our emotional and physical wellbeing.
6) Mindfulness is a form of meditation. Hal Arkowitz and Scott O. Lilienfeld wrote in Scientific American, “People have practiced meditation throughout history. It has evolved into many forms and is found in virtually every major religion.”
Reconnect with your religious tradition or seek out a new one. Find churches, synagogues, temples or shrines near you here. Find mosques here.
7) Read some poetry. Scholar Shauna L. Shapiro wrote, “poetry often produces a sense of freedom and openness, allowing for ... openness of the senses, and a deep experience of understanding.” Practice with this classic winter poem:
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
by Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
- Read the poem the first time to settle your thoughts and focus.
- Read a second time for understanding.
- Read a third time in a state of mindfulness, entering into the scene the poet has created for you.
You can find more cozy winter poems here.
8) Write a gratitude list of the friends and acquaintances you made the past year. List the pleasant surprises life brought.
9) If you suffered any losses this year, write about those. If you are grieving, write about the happy memories your loved one brought to your life. Feel your sadness, your loneliness, your longing. Accept these feelings without judgement.
10) Focus on presence, not productivity. You don’t have to change anything, make a goal list, improve your diet or focus on solutions right now. Just be.
Which of these mindfulness practices appeals to you? If you practice others, I would love to hear about them in the Comments below.
Sources:
Poetry, Mindfulness and Medicine. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
http://old.stfm.org/Fullpdf/July01/lame.pdf
Winter Poems. PoetryFoundation.org. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/article/178163
Is Mindfulness Good Medicine? Scientific American. Retrieved December 15, 2014.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-mindfulness-good-medicine
Do You Need a Nature Prescription? WebMd. Retrieved December 15, 2014
http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/nature-therapy-ecotherapy
Reviewed December 16, 2014
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith