Mindfulness. A word that gets thrown around a lot these days. And for good reason, I believe. We seem to be everywhere, yet nowhere – both at the same time. Our phones are always ringing, or at least buzzing if we’re trying to be considerate of those around us. Our inboxes are constantly filling up and there’s, of course, the Sisyphean task of reaching zero inbox which we attempt to do whenever the occasion presents itself, be it while waiting for the bus, queueing, or trying to fall asleep. I’m guilty of it myself – trying to multitask (when it’s well-known that it’s actually counter-productive), thinking too much and too often about my to-do list, getting carried away by what’s next.
However, it’s not the ‘what’s next’ that matters (obviously, Buddha isn’t considered wise for no reason). Whenever I manage to put myself into the present-only mode, life seems good, most of the time, even great. So what I do is block off chunks of time dedicated to one thing only (for the time being, that ‘thing’ seems to be my daughter for like 99% of the time) and I try (emphasis on ‘try’ here) to do just that, and not to think about anything else. When my aforementioned toddler keeps refusing to even touch a banana or cries desperately because meatballs don’t seem to be her thing, I admit, mentally running away seems like the best thing to do. But when I stop myself from daydreaming about a cocktail on a beach, most of the time I manage to see the funny side of things and spoonful by spoonful, mealtime comes to an end. Mindfulness in its prime.
But being mindful of the moment doesn’t just let you buffer the strain of everyday life and chores, it helps you enjoy life to the fullest. And this is where we come to the gist of the post: grab a camera, forget about your phone, or anything else for that matter, set a timer and lose yourself to the experience. On a sunny spring early afternoon, this is precisely what I did. I took my 50mm lens and used the 30 minutes I had the best way I could. The photos in this post will from now on serve as a reminder – be present, enjoy yourself and- for heaven’s sake – forget the phone (unless your phone camera is the only one you have – in that case, put the phone in airplane mode and shoot on).
