So I've been trying something new lately, that I learned from Pema Chodron's Getting Unstuck. It's a practice Pema calls 1 & 1, a way of being mindful but easygoing. When you wake up in the morning, you pick an intention for your day. It can be anything, big or small. The crucial guidelines are:
- Pick just one thing.
- Do your best to do that thing.
- At the end of the day, take the time to consciously see how you did.
I do this with a little tech assist. I have alarms on my phone for getting up and going to bed, and I've added a little note to each to remind me to do this. Plus, I keep my intention in a little document on my phone, so I can take the step of actually writing it down.
I've only been doing it for a few days, but it feels good. Some days, I've really been on top of my intention, and made it happen. Other days, I totally flubbed it. But it's still cool, because I got to look back on why I did. In one case, I had planned to write, and just ran out of time. In another, I resolved to not grouse about something at work to coworkers. (Totally unrealistic!) The great thing has been no matter whether I've had a home-run or a strike each day, I've made a practice of paying attention.
It feels good.