For my last birthday, a well-meaning friend bought me a set of cards called the 31 Day Mindfulness Challenge:
Instructions
Lovely and simple. Read through the information at the top of the card deck, then simply take one card per day and perform the task as instructed.
I was looking forward to getting started - I love a nice challenge, and mindfulness is a great thing to practise - it brings your focus to the here and now, and helps you let go of negative thoughts from the past, or fear and anxiety about the future.
Bliss, right?
Well. Only if you don’t get annoyed with yourself for not being able to complete the challenges!
I gave up after 3 days on the challenge for Day 1:
Watch a Sunset or Sunrise
Either today or tomorrow, take time to watch a sunset or sunrise.
There are few things more present than the feeling of watching a day start or end. Aside from its natural beauty, the sunset is also a great reminder that each and every day offers us a new end and a new beginning.
Peacefully enjoy the vibrant colours and spirit of the sun and leave your to-do-lists and worries out of the moment.
Initially, I thought, “Ah, this is a nice one!”. I really enjoy sunsets and sunrises, but for some reason, when I made it part of a challenge several things happened that got in the way.
It was either raining or cloudy and everything looked a bit sh*t, or something would happen like I’d get up just before dawn to find Eddie had been sick in the kitchen and by the time I’d put the mop round the sun was up, or the coffee machine didn’t work because it needed descaling and thus derailing my focus, or someone pinged me on WhatsApp, or all my clean pants were in the tumble dryer causing a pre-dawn knicker crisis, or I’d get engrossed in chatting to Kev about something or other after our meal in the evening, or see a drawer that needed tidying, or a dying plant that needed water (which obviously leads to a full-scale watering of all green things) and I’d completely miss a perfectly good sunset.
The cards have been sitting on the side in my kitchen for months now, and all I think when I look at the packet is “You couldn’t even watch a bloody sunset. Fail!”
Now, I’m sure my friend didn't intend to cause me any distress with these cards - quite the opposite in fact, and in and of themselves, the cards are neither good nor bad but my thinking about them makes them so, as Shakespeare once said (kind of).
So, to put the past behind me, I shuffled the cards today (I know some of my friends who love doing things in order will be wincing right now!), and pulled out a new “first” card.
It said:
Mindful Tactile Exercise
Pinch your arm and pay close attention to how it feels and what your emotions start to do. Pay attention to the pain it causes, and how it radiates out from the point where you pinched and then how it flows through your body.
This exercise can really tune you in to how your body deals with discomfort and what emotions arise. Do you get angry, annoyed or frustrated when you feel pain?
Do this exercise several times until you feel you appreciate and understand the sensation and how your body and mind deal with it”
Balls to that!
Sometimes, you just have to know when it’s time to move on from goals of the past. They aren’t always right for you.