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Monday, November 2, 2009

November is the Perfect Month to Practice "Be Here Now"




It's a new month and it's time to start some new adventures.  November is the official National Blog Posting Month, complete with blogroll, contest and prizes.  It is also the National Novel Writing Month where participants are tasked with writing 50,000 words in one month's time, which is about 175 pages.  November is a month of writing-related challenges!

I have decided that as long as my Dragon NaturallySpeaking software and my computer can handle it, I am going to atempt both challenges.

So for my blog, I've decided to undertake a "Be Here Now" experiment this month.  What that means is that I am going to redouble my efforts to practice mindfulness, i.e. living in the moment.  Each day I will purposely chose and focus my mind on one task at hand.  Each evening I will write about my daily "be here now" exercise to share here on my blog the following day.  I endeavor to pick exercises that fit the theme of my blog and shed more light on my mission to live my best life despite chronic illness.

So let's begin...

Yesterday, I picked taking down the Halloween decorations as my "be here now" exercise.  

While we were working, I heard my friend Cyndie say something like, "All this work to put up decorations for one day and now it is over."  So I said, "But we have next Halloween to look forward to."  "But first Thanksgiving and Christmas," she replied.  Then we shared a laugh and went back to pulling the spider webs off the shrubs. 


As we continued to work, I thought about how everything in life is transitional.  We live from moment to moment, that's why it is important for me to practice my "be here now" muscles.  I thought about how both good and bad things happen and then the moments are gone.  Knowing that bad things don't last forever is a relief.  Knowing that good things don't last is a bit harder to accept.   I then thought that, yes, Halloween has passed, but that is what makes holidays like Halloween so fun.  If every day was Halloween, I'd need to buy a constant supply of candy for the trick-o-treaters and spend 2+ hours handing it out every day!  Halloween wouldn't be so fun much anymore.

So I focused on enjoying putting away the decorations, taking care to pack them for their 12 months of stasis until they are needed again.  I enjoyed seeing the front yard return to its everyday look.  I enjoyed the sense of accomplishment when Cyndie, Robert and I completed this task.

Join my experiment by sharing your "be here now" moments by clicking on the ADD YOUR COMMENT button below this post.     
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