To practice bringing consciousness to the forefront of your day I propose a 1 day challenge. This could give your day more joy, meaning, and an overall sense of lightness. For one day practice being the quiet observer.
What do I mean by practice being the quiet observer?
I am not suggesting that you don’t talk for a day, nor am I suggesting you sit quietly in a corner. What I am proposing is that you quietly observe the world around you. Observe what others are doing without making judgment. Observe the weather and appreciate it for what it is. Observe everything you are seeing without trying to change or control it. Instead quietly observe in a place of acceptance.
Accept the situation around you, and resist the urge to judge it as good or bad. Pay particularly close attention to your senses- your touch, your taste, the sounds that you hear around you. Feel the wind, listen to the birds, smell the grass. Observe and simply allow yourself to be.
This is a wonderful one day practice to become more present. For most of us our minds have become so focused on past events and/or anticipation of the future that we are leaving behind the possibility of real happiness, which is right now. For one day don’t think about what has happened to you, or what you hope to achieve or are anxious about in the future. Allow yourself to live in the moment. When your mind is struggling to do that this is when paying particularly close attention to your senses can help bring you back to the present.
If you have children, watch them play and resist the urge to be in fear of what may happen, how they might get hurt and so on. Trust that your instincts will kick in if there is real danger and you will act. Much of what we fear and try to control is an illusion made up in our mind. If we can let that go we can find more joy in the moment.
For starters, commit to one day of quietly observing. Observe the world around you as well as your own thoughts, resisting the urge to judge them. Remove pain from the past or anxiety about the future for just one day. If you have fear about letting yourself go for one day, acknowledge that the most you have to lose is one day of your normal life, but what you could gain is in fact infinite in possibility. Be open and see how it makes you feel. It may just transform your whole life!
Please do let me know how your day goes! What is it like spending 1 day as the quiet observer?
