Jenerally Speaking

When was the last time I actually sat still and did nothing? I honestly can’t remember.

A few months ago my car had a  flat tire.   I brought my car to the repair shop and they told me the wait was going to be about a half an hour.   I seriously didn’t think I could last that long in the waiting area.   I wanted to call someone to pick me up and bring me home.   I figured I could just return later to get the car.   The idea of sitting there not doing anything actually felt torturous to me.

I used to love having quiet time….being able to sit and just sort out my thoughts.   I can’t seem to do that anymore.   I can’t even watch TV without having a book next to me or my laptop in front of me.   My browser currently had 10 tabs opened and I have six windows opened on the bottom, too.

Has technology done this to me?  Have I become so accustomed to being able to do multiple things at once that I never really thought about whether I should be doing multiple things at once?  All I know is that something needs to change.

It’s so easy to say that I am just going to spend some quite time each day, but what isn’t easy is knowing HOW to do that.   How does one actually have “quiet time” or “meditation time?”  Should I think?  Do I hum?  Do I not think?  Should I go outside? Should I kneel?  Do I pray?  Do I write in a journal?  I tried doing a variety of those things and found myself thinking of something that I needed to do or wanted to do and within moments my “quiet time” was over.   I got antsy and distracted.

So,  I am making this my goal.   I am going to try to limit my multi-tasking activities.  I need to train myself to do one thing at a time and really focus on it.   Really pay attention to the task.   I think that is where the problem really lies.  I am so used to having a ton of things running through my head at any given moment.  Time flies so quickly and I feel like I am barely experiencing any of it.

I need to learn how to live in the now.  The “now” being the one task I am currently attending to.  If my mind drifts to thoughts about another task, I will just push those thoughts aside and allow myself to spend a good solid amount of time on the first task before I move on to the next.  Maybe this will finally train me to actually sit outside on the deck and just enjoy the pretty day…without jumping up after 2 minutes because I suddenly thought of a million other things to do.

So, how does everyone else do this?  Does anyone else have the problem with living in the now?  How do you focus?  I can’t be the only one who sometimes feels like life is rushing past them and they aren’t really getting everything they can out of their life experiences.  There has to be a better way to do things.  I’m going to work really hard to figure that out.