Being Mindful- Post 4

Coriander Leaves and Meditation:-

I wonder how much we read and listen to motivational articles and follow our idols, gurus or may be authors who soothes us by their wisdom, thoughts, viewpoints and talks. I myself follow many and they inspire me. One common challenge, that I believe, is to harness our own mind , remember what we have learnt and having focus for a considerable period of time to be able to make them impactful in our day to day life.Meditation is one of the means. Meditation is also a meant to achieve an impact on our self-conditioning. That is the time when you achieve tranquility and make yourself emotionally balanced.

However meditation seems tough for beginners and even today for me because thoughts never stop coming. In fact, the more I focus, the more I tend to think.

If I restrict myself to positive talks and follow my gurus, all inspirational thoughts are gone by the wind when I enter the chaos of my workplace or even earlier than that while I am driving towards my office and someone overtakes me from the wrong side. Even the pettiest reason can be a call from a bank requesting to apply for their credit card.

So, is meditation or listening to power talks the only way to get your mind focused?

Well, I discovered a new way through a simple incident- which reflects in the header of this article.

I was able to meditate and focus and I was only able to realize this a day later. Half of you must be about to stop reading this article any further, but just hang on. Get this going because you might end up realizing how good you all are when it comes to meditation.

During first one week of lockdown, I was asked by my wife to help her in some kitchen work while she wanted to cook an Indian breakfast delicacy- “Chole- Bhature”. As I much as I did not want to, I had no choice for two reasons- No. 1 being not wanting to miss having my breakfast and No.2 not wanting to risk missing my lunch and dinner.

So the task was to peel coriander leaves, every leaf of it in one bowl for the veg curry and another bowl for green chutney (Sauce) to be served with onions in breakfast.

While I started to peel by taking each thin stem of coriander, I was strictly instructed with a short demonstration on how to not waste any leaf. I have always been a good listener. I started the task, keeping all instructions in mind, and after 10 minutes I realized how lousy this job is and with so many bundles left, felt like leaving the job in middle. I even shot a question to my wife “What will you do with so much leaves, Isn’t it a lot?”. I did not get any answer, and her silence gave me all answers though. Having no option left, I gave up and went through my job not realizing when next 30 minutes passed by.

Two bowls were full.

My son was playing numerous video games on television at full volume and nothing bothered me while I was peeling those leaves.

At this time of lockdown, when I had no rush and I had time to observe little things around me and when I surrendered myself to the job- I realized that I went into a trance.

Those 20-30 minutes, my mind had no thoughts without me aiming for the same. I was in so much bliss with no thoughts floating inside my mind.

Even there was no craving for breakfast for which I agreed to do this job. I was not irritated by the loud volume of television at my background. It just made me realise the importance of surrendering yourself to a job, without trying hard and without listing any expectations of getting a desirable result. Isn’t this what we call as “Detached Action”.

Person who is able to perform such actions in household life is a Yogi. A hermit might be able to withdraw from the world, but Yogi is superior to him to be able to perform the same function even being a householder.

However easy and beautiful it may sound; it is difficult implementing it. Why is it difficult? Simple answer is lack of practice.

These little incidents however remind us the power of small things in our lives, which if we are aware of, brings our strength in forefront. If we can just be aware of these moments while performing these tasks (or if we can realize even after some time), they will make an impact on our mind’s conditioning. They can impact the way we think in rest of the day and which in turn can impact the way we react to situations and to people around us. It is nothing but practice which will we lack.

I became a Yogi for those few minutes. I just hope that every one of you are able to recollect these moments in coming time and share with us. Well if you are not able to recollect, it is OK. But in that case, can we start involving ourselves in these small tiny jobs and simple pleasures of life that we have forgotten in our day to days life. Buying fruits and vegetables, cooking at times, stopping your car on way back to home and buying a chewing gum for yourself and enjoying it while driving, counting number of stories that you have read at sleeping time to your kids, going for a haircut and asking for a head massage for a change, making those classic snacks like home made lemonade or enjoying those crispy "Haldiram's Bhujia" with diced onions, tomatoes and green chills and enjoying that crackling sound while we eat etc....

All these activities can have an impact our lives and if we are able to observe them while doing them and have this ability of being self-aware with practice- meditation will become easier in the next step.

It’s just the realization of moments that matter, just being aware of your emotions, just being mindful, just living in those moments…..

Please try to research more on - “Proprioceptive Input Activities”

Proprioception is the sense that tells the body where it is in space. It is all about our own body awareness. Let us select any 3 activities from below that you will follow in this month and let us converse. Condition is that one of the activity has to be related to fitness ( Yoga, HIIT, Skipping ropes, Monkey Bars) and other two can be anything. All three activities must be carried out for minimum 30 minutes – thrice a week and one of the days has to be a weekend. Thank you all!

· Yoga

· Gorilla Jumps

· Jumping

· Tug-O-War- Try with your kids at home

· Chew gum

· Crunchy Snacks

· Drink Milkshake

· Pillow fights

· Skipping rope

· Scooter board rides

· Monkey Bars

· Rolling

· HIIT

· Bear Hugs

Just hang out with your soul!!!

Well as a going forward rule I will always finish off my conversation with some beautifully written lines ( By Sudhir Mishra) that touched me to reflect upon and appreciate -

अभी अभी कुछ गुज़रा है लापरवाह , धुल में दौड़ता हुआ

ज़रा पलट कर देखा तो ,

बचपन था शायद....

With Warm Wishes and good vibes always

Yours NK