I’m reading a book right now called Buddhism for Mothers. It is excellent. For someone who was raised in a non-religious home, I could seriously get used to Buddhism; so accepting, so balanced, so sane. This is something I definitely do not always feel (sane that is).
An awesome, simple, but certainly not easy suggestion from this chock-full of good advice book is to aim to be present. The author even says to tell yourself what you are doing as a way to keep yourself on track and in the present moment. For example: “I am washing the dishes,” or, “I am folding laundry.” Even something as simple as, “I am walking across the room.”
How does, “I am playing trains with Josh while composing an email in my mind and drinking a cup of coffee,” sound? Or what about, “I am sitting in a meeting, jotting down a grocery list and wondering how Josh is doing at daycare.” Or my favorite: “I am writing a blog post while intermittently checking Facebook and listening to the baby monitor for signs of awakeness.”
So obviously for me the first order of business is to slow things down so I’m not doing so many things at once. If I’m always multi-tasking, then I’m inherently not present for any of the one things on my plate. You should know I noted recently that I can no longer even see my plate because it is completely buried.
Gone. No plate.
It is time for me to learn to say, “no.”
