Sunday, September 28, 2014

Each moment is an invitation to mindfulness. Sometimes we accept.

This weekend I went to a training in Motivational Interviewing -- which is a strange name for a simple and profound way of being with a client that helps you get out of your own way, explore and resolve ambivalence, and be able to make the improvements you want in your life.

Orange and yellow maple leaf in a shallow rock-lined stream
A new day, a new inspiring leaf-in-a-stream picture
A recurring theme in the training, or perhaps simply one I was especially primed to notice, was the idea of letting go of perfection, and allowing the good-enough (which “any” is, inherently) to imperfectly unfold. One person talked of the “need” to floss daily, and how this often stops us from doing it on any day. Similarly, another spoke of wanting to re-start a movement practice after an injury, but continued to not do any because she hadn’t yet found the “right” one. Over and over again, we examined this tendency, and laughed in love at ourselves, because here we were, a group of mindfulness-inclined practitioners, and we knew the futility of this line of thought -- yet experienced it anyway, because we too are perfectly flawed beings.

And so in that spirit I blog today -- despite months of “I’ll restart soon, really” and of too-good intentions blocking good-enough actions, and despite not knowing what I will do tomorrow, next week, next month.

Because as my clients and I practice in the room, there is only this moment, this “now” that is gone as soon as we think of it. “Shoulds” for the future and guilt or shame for the past pull us out of this moment, and we miss this opportunity for action.

Ah, but look -- here comes another now, and another chance. I think, for today, I will take it, and let go of when I did not blog, and the need to know whether I will tomorrow.

What is pulling you out of this moment and the action you want to take right now? What might happen if you forgave yourself, right now, for not having done it yet?