This morning, I looked out my window and saw a man washing the sidewalk. Gently, he shifted the water hose from one side to the other, making sure every square inch of the sidewalk was covered with soap and water. Back and forth, back and forth the hose went. I watched the entire process, and by the end of it, not only was the sidewalk clean, but I felt so calm and peaceful.
If you're someone who has a difficult time meditating or think that meditation comes in only one form (such as sitting a specific way for a specific amount of time in quietness), I'd like to offer a different perspective. Wikipedia states that meditation is "a practice where an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state."
Naturally, you'll come across many opportunities to use as meditation in your day today. These might look like:
- Watching the steam rise up out of your coffee or tea
- The feeling of your bare feet touching the floor as you walk from room to room
- Seeing the clouds shift and move across the sky when you look up
- Watching the trees sway back and forth as the wind moves through them
All you have to do is to be intentional about noticing these things. And, then when you find one - stay with it. Focus on it and feel yourself shift into a peaceful state as any stress dissipates.
Anything can be a meditation. And, you get to choose! What is one thing that you have used as a moment by moment meditation?
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