October Mindfulness Challenge – Day 1

I like change. I think it’s terribly boring when every day seems like a carbon copy of the previous one.

Lately I’ve noticed just about every day has been following a similar pattern:

• Wake up at 6 a.m.
• Drink coffee while checking social media, i.e., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
• Take the kids to school
• Come home, check my social media
• Work for an hour or two, periodically checking my social media
• Eat lunch, while checking my social media
• Work for another hour or so and then check my social media
• Take a nap
• Pick up the kids from school
• Come home, check my social media
• Read for a while
• Check my social media
• Make dinner, while periodically checking my social media
• Eat dinner
• Take the kids to soccer and/or cross country, checking my social media while I’m waiting
• Come home and start getting ready for bed
• Watch a show with the kids
• Put the kids to bed
• Watch another show or two while checking my social media
• Check my social media one more time before brushing my teeth and going to bed
• Wake up, repeat…

Recognize a pattern?

Basically my world revolves around social media. Sure, I’m not taking selfies every five seconds like some people I know (you know who you are). But it’s a problem, no doubt. Like so many of us today, I have become a slave to my phone, my mind forever restless, always needing to be entertained.

This has to stop. Therefore, I have decided to make October all about mindfulness. What is mindfulness, you ask? It’s being present in the moment. It’s not dwelling on the past or worrying about the future or having FOMO (fear of missing out). It’s about appreciating this moment — this one right here (and this one, too) — in order to live a more peaceful, contented, and fulfilling life. In other words, it’s the exact opposite of what I’ve been doing for the past few years now.

In order to move more toward mindfulness, I have decided to make three rules for the entire month of October:

1. No social media. None. Nada.
2. Meditate Daily for at least 5 minutes
3. Write Daily for at least 15 minutes

That’s right: ABSOLUTELY NO SOCIAL MEDIA! No incessantly checking Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, etc., throughout the day. It sounds hard, but you know what? Considering 99% of the posts in my various feeds are about:

a) Some funny thing their kid did/said
b) How good their dinner looks
c) That arrogant, reckless moron in the White House…

…I’m pretty sure I won’t be missing anything too important. Actually, I bet it will be rather pleasant.

I’ve tried meditating before and it’s never been easy for me, but I’m willing to give it another go if it can help me calm my oh-so-restless mind. I plan on doing just five minutes a day for the first week and then working my way up to 15 minutes. Hopefully it will help me focus on…wait…what was I talking about again?

And finally, getting back to writing. This. I haven’t done this in quite some time. Oh sure, I’ve been writing to pay the bills (well, one of the bills). But, honestly, writing Web copy and press releases doesn’t really do much for the soul. I need to write about real stuff, real life. And I need to do it every single day to give my writing muscles a good workout.

Even if nobody ends up reading this jibberish.

So if you’re trying to get ahold of me via social media and having no luck, now you know why. Then again, since I’m only writing this here on my blog and not posting it out on my various social media platforms, I’m pretty sure no one’s gonna read it anyway. Besides my three loyal followers, that is.

To be continued… ~

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Copyright © 2018 Valentine J. Brkich