REROUTING OUR MIND, RECOVERING OUR BLISS

Let’s be reasonable and add an eighth day to the week that is devoted exclusively to reading.

– Lena Dunham

And meditating. And breathing.

– Just me.

Our daily lives can become frenetic sometimes: Calendars filled with dates, calls, activities, commitments. Our heads going around routines, behaviors, rituals, memories, desires.

As we move forward through our day, every encounter, conversation, situation, coincidence, circumstance, add up to our minds creating new ideas, new concerns, new thoughts and more things to think about. Non-stop.

And we feel tired by noon. Already?

Scientific studies show that the road to transforming our lives, and the world around us, is only possible by transforming ourselves. Taking a break and creating time and space for ourselves every day, is the only resource to improve our mood, our health, our creativity, and our productivity.

On a regular weekday with an 8-hour shift at work, a couple of hours of commuting, and 3 to 4 hours between getting ready for work and taking our 3 meals, that would give us around 4 hours of free time, on a 6-hour sleep basis.

But tiredness is not in the body, it’s in the mind. With appropriate meals and good night sleep, we should be restored and able to go with a good energy supply day after day. So what’s draining all that supply?

We are unable to quiet our minds, that’s why meditation can be a challenge for most of us, but anything is possible with intention and enough practice. Working with short daily sessions of meditation, or just breathing flows, can do wonders for your soul, your mind and your body.

Reading books is another wonderful way to reroute the mind into different thinking patterns, changing the scenery, and getting inside the minds, stories, and lives of others, in fiction as it is in reality. Opening doors to new experiences, changing our perspectives or simply keeping us entertained in something else.

Let’s give ourselves those much-needed breaks each day: clear out that creativity block, recover our bliss after that annoying phone call, take a walk to change our scenery, stop and smell the flowers… or smell the coffee if there are no flowers around.

These tiny actions will bring renewal since day one, and our lives will get better and better.