Thoughts never fleeting, ever-present but lightly held, as light as the wind that swept the tall grasses on the Pleasant Valley dessert hill. She sat, watching the bend of the golden grasses, ebb, and flow, creating masses of undulating and juxtaposed waves that bent to each other and bowed, as if in their final desperate attempt, leaned to its extreme to hand off an ever-urgent message to the next successor, to the North, then South, whichever way they found to break free. The wind tousled her hair as she sat jeans to powdery tan dirt and rocky ground, and the sweat at the tip of her brow, upper lip, and the nape of her neck cooled her to a comfortable constitution of dignification abound. She closed her eyes, the slight whistle and quiet rumble of the chaotic and indecisive wind swelled, never matching her focused breath, bringing acceptance to her insignificance in the midst of such simple magnificence in which she, in this instance, dwelled.
When I was young, I ventured out alone a lot. I wandered or rode dirt bikes in the hills behind our home for hours. I was painfully aware of each moment of my life experiences and can remember them to this day – irreflective of today when yesterday was but a blur in my memory. It wasn’t until I had taken a Mindfulness Leadership course in college that I came to a realization that I had exponentially become mindless as life had sped by – expectantly as life became, at times, overwhelming and one becomes forever lost in a windstorm of competing and fleeting thoughts and feelings. Not only do we become lost in a world of thoughts, they often do not reflect compassion or love for ourselves. Our professor spoke of the benefits of Mindfulness and provided us with some tools to help us re-enter our true reality, away from a conjured one manifested from imagination and feelings of insecurity, frustration, and unworthiness – to find our way back to practicing self-compassion and compassion for others through developing our depth of awareness. One easy-to-remember tool for practicing mindfulness and self-compassion is to use the following four steps also known as RAIN:
1. Recognize: what is going on with you, your body, your thoughts, your situation,
2. Acknowledge: accept and allow the experience just as it is
3. Investigate: explore your emotions with kindness, openness, and curiosity
4. Non-identify: consciously avoid being defined by a feeling
Life’s little moments are gifts – bring yourself back to being aware of them. Allow your thoughts and feelings to arise in you – recognize them, accept them as they are and that you cannot control your experiences, investigate them, hold them lightly, don’t identify with them, and then lovingly let them go. RAIN gives you that pause, prevents reaction – and instead provides time for a thoughtful response to be given in its place. This practice will help you in relationships in business, life, and with yourself. You will begin to realize, once the waves of chaotic thoughts have subsided into a realm of acceptance and awareness, that your true reality is that life is simple, beautiful, and significant.
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Nancy Mues 