Radical Presence
I am one of the few in class who actually liked this book. Don’t get me wrong, there were definitely times in the book where it got a little…shall we say…mushy or sensitive for my taste, but the majority of the key concepts were interesting, and seemed very useful! I really enjoyed the last chapter (and no, not because I was almost done with the book) and the idea of taking your time and enjoying what you do. Going along with this thought was her metaphor about rowing-and how you need to “rest in the stroke.” You can go twice as long if you “rest in the stroke.” I found myself thinking about how I rush through each day just to get to the end, sometimes it feels like I’m barley making it through the day getting everything done on my “to-do list.” Even, as O’Reiley pointed out, making dinner is not relaxing or a simple task, it’s another chore that needs to be checked off. She then talked about making dinner from scratch and taking twice as long as normal to make dinner and enjoying that time. Not only are there health benefits of this, creating more family time because of this, but the simple idea that there is less stress in your life because of this is empowering and motivating.
I also liked thinking about life as present time. I am ALWAYS thinking about the future and it takes me 9 years to make a simple decision because I do NOT want to make the wrong one. The idea of living each day to the fullest and being present in each moment is so refreshing and relieves stress even thinking about it, I hope to incorporate this idea into my daily life a bit more (I don’t want to fully give up thinking about the future though J).
Jennifer your post was similar to mine…about thinking about the future, and not being really able to live in the moment because of all the worries for tomorrow, next week, etc. I want to be able to live in the moment, but with so much going on, is it really possible for someone to live their entire life this way. I agree I would like to incorporate it, but maybe just living in the moment for 10 or 15 minutes a day would be a good start for me.
ReplyDeleteMy extended family is making dinner from scratch here tonight. I appreciate your reminding me about enjoying every moment of it--the cooking of it, the way my dogs beg Nate to drop the veggies he's cutting on the floor, the smell of the cooking rice, and the green of the curry. Why I hope we can enjoy the peeling of the shrimp and the bubbling of the green curry sauce--not to mention eating it.
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy your dinner as much. Next time, join us!
Jennifer that was a great post. The idea of stopping to smell the roses is often lost in the hectic lives we all live. I don't know about everyone else but taking a moment to relax and enjoy the simply things is exactly how I am going to spend the rest of summer.
ReplyDeleteLew, I would bet you will be doing some golfing!
ReplyDeleteJennifer, I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing to plan for the future or be thinking ahead, I guess it's about finding the right balance and being mindful when you can. When my kids were babies, sometimes I would say things like "Oh, I can't wait until they can walk." Then later it would be, "Won't it be great to start kindergarten"...older, wiser people would say not to "wish it away" because it would go so fast and it would be so hard to comprehend how fast it would really go. Now my son is 19, daughter is 14, and I can't hardly imagine how fast it seemed to go....my point in all of this is we sometimes don't see it when we are in it, but taking a time to bring awareness is so beneficial.
Also, it's okay to make mistakes (spoken from a long hard fought battle with myself to have permission to mess up and it not be the end of the world), (obviously avoiding long term negative consequences is important), but we learn so much from doing things the wrong way if we allow ourselves the opportunity. It's a very personal battle I think to decide what types of risk, failures, mistakes, wrong turns...you get the drift, that you are okay with. Please be kind to yourself when you do make them.