Two Scoops of Discipline and a bit of relaxation

Caught up with errands and other projects over the past few days, I was taken away from my commitment to doing the daily exercises and reflections from The Mindfulist. I must say that I’m really enjoying the attention that I am able to cultivate from spending time on this site and re-framing whatever current thought pattern happens to be rattling around in my head at the time.

It’s remarkable how much of my life has been spent cultivating mindfulness and awareness on the meditation cushion but this knowledge and practice flies out the window when it comes to being out of the meditation hall. It’s kind of like forgetting you’re on a diet and somehow finding yourself at Ben & Jerry’s with a bellyful of Chubby Hubby.

Niklas' lovely kitty Lotta

Discipline is hard to cultivate no matter what format it needs to come in – Single scoop, half-pint or 1 litre.

Now onto my the reflections on one of the latest prompts found on The Mindfulist.

Mindfulist Meditation- “Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.” -Chinese proverb

You know that moment when you’re out on the town and you’re wearing the good ass pants. You’re feeling like you could take on the world but there is that screeching sensation from your mid-section as it yelps out to be released from the death grip of the scratchy waistband holding it in against its will. Many folks experience these when they get caught up in wanting to be more than they think they are. I’ve gone through this before – big time. Some of those stories and labels that I built up about who I was didn’t really reflect my true self. Maybe age helps to whitter away at this need to be larger than life.

Now with a greater digital interconnectedness, sometimes though, the pressure to conform or keep up with the ‘digital Jones-es’ can creep up and cause mental tension. Goodness knows there’s times when I feel it. When this hits me, I head to a quiet spot to do some self-reflection. I sit in the ickiness and pick and pull away at it like a cheap sweater. Why I’m caught up in the negative self-talk? Where is it rooted? What am I feeling left out of? What am I craving? If I had what I was grasping at, how would it change me? Would I really be that much better off?

Relaxation for me takes the form of some deep breathing and slowing down my thoughts. How about you? What does relaxation look like for you? When’s the last time you relaxed? What was the trigger for needing to call a ‘time out’?