Feeling the Moments
Each day we walk through the routine of life, wake up..take care of responsibilities at work and home...exercise...eat...sleep, and do it all over again the next day. Many times, It's not until an extreme event happens in our lives, that we wake up and appreciate the routine, have gratitude that we have able or healthy bodies to be able to do these things, and feel.
We go through the motions each day of our lives, but not often slowing down to let ourselves FEEL each moment. In my yoga classes, many time I am stressing to the yogi's that practice with me to let their breath lead their movement, rather than mechanically moving from pose to pose. This also applies to our daily everyday life.
We get so busy with all the demands of our lives, we get consumed with all of the communications coming at us - through social media, emails, texts, and face to face interactions, that we don't take time to feel the moments in our lives. We can't keep up.
When we are at work, we rush from meeting to meeting, not stopping to take note of the last meeting we were in or pausing to reset ourselves for the next meeting. There may be frustrations from a prior interaction we didn't take note of or pause to let it simmer, so instead we bring that to each interaction and keep adding on.
Without taking notice of the feelings, they can pile up. We don't stop and breathe. We don't take stock of the little moments and appreciate them. Instead, we get stressed by our "routine" rather than stepping back and taking note of how we feel, good or bad, and being grateful for each interaction.
Resolutions don't always need to be about losing weight and exercising, they can be about small things that can improve our wellbeing for ourselves, but also for those around us.
Here are some small tips you can think about deploying this year that can be easy to make a habit of, as long as you are consistent:
- Set your meetings to end 5 minutes earlier. This will help give you time to reset before your next meeting so you can be completely present for that interaction.
- During meetings, family or friend interactions - put your phone away. That means not keeping it on the table so you can glance at it, it means completely away. Being fully present can help you focus on the person you are with and not miss important messages - whether in discussion or body language -that will help you to create successful outcomes.
- Set time in your day to shut off - whether that is calendaring in an exercise routine, or taking a few minutes in the middle of your day to shut down all technology, communication and just be in silence.
- Take 2 minutes before a meeting or interaction to close your eyes and shut off all communications. In 2 minutes, your nervous system can calm down and you can reset yourself and your brain to be more present in your next interaction.
Most importantly, take time to let yourself feel. Don't wait for a bad thing to happen in your life to wake up and take notice. Now is the time, each day. Rather than closing yourself off from letting yourself feel emotions - good or bad, take a step back and observe those feelings and let them be a teacher to you. Don't let the fear of what comes up, close you off from your life. Appreciate each moment and take little steps to see how it creates change in your life this year.