So every day, I have a few, “rituals” I guess you could call them.
The very first thing I do, every morning, is consciously make the choice to think “oh good, another one.“ But today I want to talk about the others. I also meditate every day. Usually, this happens in the shower. As I stand under the hot water I follow my breath until my mind becomes silent.
I’ll stay that way for a minute, sometimes a lot longer.
After that, I contemplate. What I mean by that is, I’ll take some idea I’m working on and sort of put it up on my mental chalkboard, and look at it. Lately the one I’ve been working on is sadness, sorrow. What even is it? What can I do with it or about it? So far what I have is that sadness is a means to connect with other people, and also a sort of built-in warning system for myself.
Things which bring me sorrow, also become things I focus on, to see what I can do about them.
Anyhow that’s just an example. This process, of meditation and contemplation, it’s immensely valuable to me. Often when I’m done doing the contemplation part of the process, it leaves me with additional thoughts that I find myself touching and exploring throughout the day.
I even have a name for that phenomenon, I call it “the ponder.“ The ponder got me to post something thoughtful to Facebook, and to go out of my way to message a few folks about something.
I’m grateful for the ponder, because for me it’s often a call to action, to see how I can do better for myself and the people around me.