By Laura Grottano
True story — I mistakenly deleted my entire first draft of this article. I was satisfied with it, but I neglected to press save. Of course, a glitch shut down my computer and all was lost! As it so often happens, that day also had many other incidents that had me feeling like a dark cloud was hovering over only my particular patch of life.
Perhaps you’ve heard of “Sturgeon’s law,” attributing to an American science fiction writer the quote that “90 percent of everything is crud.” Well, that doesn’t just apply to literature — when one aspect of your day is crud, most other parts of your day will become cruddy, too.
So, is crud actually contagious? It is only if we allow it to be. The real seed of my increasingly lousy day was me — I lost connection to the moment and allowed distractions to take me off course.
Mishaps and interruptions happen, but life will flow with more ease and simplicity by learning to keep our attention on the present (and returning to it when diverted off track). Before John Kabat-Zinn, known for his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, made the term “mindfulness” part of mainstream western culture in 2003, we might have thought about Cher slapping Nicolas Cage’s face in Moonstruck, yelling at him to “Snap out of it!”
Often we spend our present moments reminiscing about the past or fretting about the future, ignoring the moments that are actually happening even as we go about routines. Think of the consequences of that while boating — not only does dwelling in the past or future deny us present fun, but it also means we’re not focused on safety.
It’s advantageous in countless ways for boaters to avoid the distractions of our own making. Dynamic conditions need to be considered each boating moment. The weather alone is a force to be reckoned with and closely monitored, as conditions can worsen in an instant while you’re wondering how much it will cost to fix your car. Mindful awareness is necessary in situations such as uncharted shallow water or a mostly submerged rock. You can’t be thinking about the bad experience you had at the boat launch this morning or where you’ll be eating dinner tonight when a swimmer, a kayaker, a jet ski, or floating debris shows up in your path. By the time you snap out of your head and back into the situation, the mechanics of your vessel and other variables may not give you enough time to avoid damage or prevent injury.
Some disciplines of paying attention are the same as being mindful, but the two states are different. Though Cher could shout it, simply paying attention is not enough. To be mindful and in the moment, we must be in attention.
Paying attention might be if you were piloting the boat and knew that turning in a certain direction means the bimini top will not block the sun. Though reflecting on the many things you have to do at work the next day, you calculate that the sun will shine directly on your skin and so you put on your shirt. This is a wise move, and while there is great purpose in paying attention, mindfulness is different.
Under the same conditions the mindful captain may sense the breeze on his or her skin, appreciate the salty-scented air, feel the movement of the flowing waves and water, and hear the contented laughter of the passengers aboard. The captain puts on a shirt on when the skin grows warm, changes course when the breeze shifts, and steers wide of an area where the waves seems to be breaking strangely.
Engaging completely in the present ties our vital connection to living while energizing our responsive edge. I was not being mindful when I deleted my first article. Admittedly, I was in my head rather than in my now; I am grateful my lack of mindfulness only led to frustration, not danger, but I lost precious time and likely missed out on some fun things happening around me.
Mindfulness makes no judgment. It takes an inventory of both the external environment and the internal environment you are navigating at the moment. Your consciousness must focus on the energy flowing in and out in your experiences in order to appreciate and protect the abundance in your life fully. Mindfulness anchors us into the now and sets the course for better living on land and sea!
A mindful exercise
Laura Grottano is a certified yoga instructor and life-coach who is passionate about inspiring people to generate balance and success in their lives. Utilizing the two specialties, clients will learn how to expand the body and the belief systems that restrain them in order to live an empowered and purposeful life. To learn more go to Mindfulcalm.com, call 631-484-6133, or email Laura at Lauragrottano@yahoo.com. Mention this article for a free 15-minute consultation to see if a life coach is right for you.
Mindfulness Exercise: Empty Boxes
Set an alarm for five minutes. Sit comfortably or lay down. Close your eyes and simply notice your breath. Notice if you can feel your breath in your belly and then notice how your breathing moves through your back. Soften your face and muscles. Allow whatever occurs to be without judgment.
Imagine you see three empty boxes. One is labeled Thoughts, another is labeled Sensations, and the last is labeled Emotions. For the duration of the five minutes simply notice what pops into your thoughts and drop whatever pops in to one of the three boxes. Don’t concern yourself with overthinking — simply and swiftly move everything that comes along into one of the boxes until the alarm goes off.
You need not do anything else when you complete this exercise. If you chose to notice, you’ll begin to see how releasing thoughts will clear you of worry or stress that comes from holding on to thinking rather than actively being. When the thoughts that don’t matter at the moment pop in, you can toss them in a box for another time and return to being in the present moment.
Photos Courtesy National Safe Boating Council
