08 Sep

Any task can be a meditation

I am reminded today that any task can be a meditation! It helps when you are doing something you love, for someone you love, but I find that the more practice I get the easier it is becoming.

A few years ago I attended an ‘Introduction to Meditation’ training run by a Matthew Young who set up the Melbourne Meditation Centre in 2005 http://melbournemeditationcentre.com.au. The main thing that I took away from this session which remains very vividly with me today was that meditation does not need to fit into any preordained rules… Matt helped me to see that I didn’t need to plan my day to include meditation – something I had been intending to do for years (and very seldom achieving), that I could weave it into my day in lots of little ways that would allow me to have the benefits without the feeling of yet another thing I should be doing. As mums we often just don’t have time to add another job to our list of things to do!

This week being the first week of the kids being back at school after the long summer break here in the UK I still don’t quite feel like I have my life back under control…The house is still a mess with half finished jobs, my office / spare room looks like a bomb hit it and the kitchen, well I will leave that to your imagination!

But amidst this mess the trigger for my remembering how any task can be a meditation was decorating my sons 11th Birthday cake this morning.

I have discovered 3 ways that I can weave meditation into my day…

  1. A moment of pause… For example when I arrive at school a few minutes early for pick up – I close my eyes and take whatever time I have (often only literally a minute) to focus inwardly.
  1. I am doing chores… the dishes, cooking dinner, vacuuming… I become mindful of my body and concentrate on what I am doing. I get out of my head and give it a rest from the constant chatter of what else needs doing next.
  1. Doing something I love… I have always loved making Birthday Cakes… there has always something special to me about begin able to pore love into the creative process for this special day…

Even with all the other things going on and pulls on my time as I worked this morning I recaptured that feeling of being in exactly the right place, doing exactly what I should be doing. When I feel like this I can relax, push the ‘chatter’ to the back of my mind, focus and enjoy being totally emerged in the moment!

What tasks are meditative for you?

 

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