A significant source of stress we have in our busy, western lives is the volume of \u2018stuff\u2019 we try to pack into our days.\u00a0 What is the relationship between the quantity of activity and the quality of enjoyment?\u00a0 It is often negative beyond a certain threshold, but it doesn\u2019t need to be this way.\u00a0 One definition of Zen is to live an exciting life while being entirely in the present.\u00a0 All of us, regardless of age or profession, can achieve a Zen life. Thus, we are led to the crucial question: What does it mean to be in the present?<\/p>\n
To be present is to have an awareness of your environment in a non-judgmental capacity.\u00a0 If we begin to judge things, we lose awareness of our environment because we begin to analyze one topic or subject.\u00a0\u00a0 We process information linearly, just as you read this from left to right, one line at a time.\u00a0 We think one word at a time, and our eyes move around and focus on one subject at a time.\u00a0 If you were to unfocus your eyes in a general direction, you could trade details of a singular object for awareness of a greater area.\u00a0 Being present is learning how to unfocus our attention, thoughts, and emotions away from singular subjects so we can regain awareness of a greater environment.<\/p>\n
Developing a practice of letting go by itself will open up pathways toward empathy, patience, compassion, and more!\u00a0 The less we choose to react to a \u00a0\u2018blip\u2019 entering our linear scanning system, the better we tend to be over time, especially since there will be \u2018blips\u2019 we will need to react to and will consume some of the resources we have that day.\u00a0 Another benefit of being present is we spend less time worrying about future events.\u00a0 The more we move our attention, our linear scanning system, to the uncontrollable future, the worse we become as we consume mental and emotional resources on things that may or may not happen instead of what is happening now.\u00a0 If you consume all of your resources dreading tomorrow, you will fail today, and in the end, there is no tomorrow; there is only now.<\/p>\n
Being present is more than something entering our attention span and us choosing not to focus on it with judgments or analysis.\u00a0 Being present is more than stopping to breathe and smile when something pleasant triggers our senses or passes us by.\u00a0 Being present is more than maintaining an awareness of our environment; it is the understanding we are the environment.\u00a0 We do not end at the skin.\u00a0 The world around you is not a foreign, alien, world and you co-exist with it.\u00a0 You and the environment are the same; you cannot find flowers without bees and rain.<\/p>\n
Try to describe someone without describing their environment.\u00a0 The person proud of their heritage?\u00a0 The Inner-city person fighting to break cycles of poverty and opportunity?\u00a0 The rural person fighting to break cycles of poverty and opportunity?\u00a0 The immigrant fleeing violence and repression?\u00a0 We do not end at our skin, but we often behave as if we do.\u00a0 We treat the environment around us differently than we treat ourselves, and we do not understand the impact it has on us and others.\u00a0 Such is true on small scales like our personal spaces and massive scales like industrial pollution.<\/p>\n
One of the most popular meditation practices is the \u2018Body Scan Meditation.\u2019\u00a0 It is as straightforward as it sounds: you close your eyes and go through your body, top to bottom and bottom to top, checking in on yourself.\u00a0 \u2018How do I feel?\u2019\u00a0 \u2018Is something out of sorts?\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 The Body Scan Meditation is a fantastic practice, and I encourage everyone to begin\/continue it.\u00a0 However,\u00a0 since we do not end at the skin, I would suggest also adapting the practice occasionally to \u2018The Environment Scan Meditation.\u2019\u00a0 How is your space feeling?\u00a0 Is the environment feeling ok? \u00a0\u00a0Maybe it could use a little tidying up or a minor re-organization.\u00a0 Perhaps it could use a little appreciation, a quiet \u2018thank you for your service.\u2019\u00a0 It may feel odd to thank inanimate objects at first, but practicing gratitude is self-fulfilling, and taking care of things that take care of you is rarely a bad practice.<\/p>\n
As with most things, Moderation is the key.\u00a0 No one, least of all me, is suggesting we need to keep ourselves and, by extension, the environment in museum-level cleanliness.\u00a0 However,\u00a0 by developing the understanding that we and the world around us aren\u2019t two distinct entities, we can develop our compassion further.\u00a0 Some of us have an easier time being compassionate toward ourselves, and some of us toward others.\u00a0 Since they are both one and the same we can use that to develop our practice.<\/p>\n
By being present and developing our practice of compassion, we can move toward the goal of that Zen Life – an exciting life while being entirely in the present.\u00a0 We can choose when to react when a \u2018blip\u2019 enters our linear scanning system known as attention; we can let go of worrying about things that aren\u2019t happening here and now so much. We can organically take care of ourselves and our environment because not only do we understand they are the same, but we genuinely care.\u00a0 It is a practice;\u00a0 it takes time to develop, and we will be imperfect.\u00a0 There will be days we won\u2019t have the resources to do it properly, but little by little, we can improve.\u00a0 You are worth it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A significant source of stress we have in our busy, western lives is the volume of \u2018stuff\u2019 we try to pack into our days.\u00a0 What is the relationship between the quantity of activity and the quality of enjoyment?\u00a0 It is often negative beyond a certain threshold, but it doesn\u2019t need to be this way.\u00a0 One […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[337],"tags":[332,168],"class_list":["post-28838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-mindfulness-journey","tag-332","tag-hope"],"yoast_head":"\n