Welcome to Tuesdays with Chel.
“We can train and develop our mind to create inner peace, happiness, and compassion… All we need to do is create the conditions for them to emerge, grow, and flourish.”
– Chade-Meng Tan
A few months ago, I listened to a talk by Chade-Meng Tan. He’s not only an expert software engineer at Google, but he’s also “Google’s Mindfulness Pioneer”. He created a program to teach other Google employees and companies across the globe how to inspire and cultivate mindfulness, and how mindfulness can be used in the workplace to inspire growth and success that goes beyond dollars and cents.
Mr. Tan’s talk was incredibly inspiring, but one thing he said made more of an impact on me than *any* other thing I have ever heard, read, or been told about the subject of mindfulness. Here’s what he said (in a paraphrased nutshell:)
Your mind is like a snow globe that has been picked up and given a good shake. Every once in a while, it needs a little time to settle back down.
Wow. WOW. What a great way to think about mindfulness.
It’s not about achieving some zen-like state, or committing to some some prescribed period of time in which your mind is blank like a brand new canvas. It’s not about becoming a yogi or going on retreat to a monastery half a world away. It’s not about forcing yourself to sit in a chair in a quiet room and meditate if you can’t stand to do it.
Instead, just consider mindfulness a simple chance to allow all the flotsam and jetsam that are swirling around your brain/heart/soul to settle down a little bit.
Mindfulness is basically just checking in with yourself every so often, becoming aware of how you feel, inside and out, becoming aware of your surroundings EXACTLY as they are, and that’s it.
Mindfulness is a chance to reset, regroup, come into present. All you have to do is take one moment, look around you, feel inside yourself, and think about what’s *real* instead of how you’re translating and reacting to that reality.
Mindfulness is a chance to escape the story, the anxiety, the yesterdays and tomorrows.
Mindfulness is a chance to step away from the obsessions and the concerns.
Mindfulness can be done as little as as often as necessary- you are the only person who can determine what is the right amount for you.
Let’s be honest- if you are reading a site called “Bliss Habits” which is devoted to “cultivating delight”, then you are most likely already a pretty darn mindful person. The fact that you recognize that life has the potential to be incredibly juicy makes you a very mindful person, indeed. The problem is that most of us don’t recognize we’re already mindful.
What most of us need is not a whole new commitment to mindfulness, but just the recognition that the way we live is already quite mindful and that all we need to do is honor it and give it a little room to grow.
So take the opportunity to be mindful- take the opportunity to inhabit your own life fully, for just a little while, before the snow globe is picked up and rattled around again.
Chel Micheline is a mixed-media artist, curator, writer, and avid gardener/reader/swimmer who lives in Southwest Florida with her husband and daughter. When Chel’s not making art or pondering the Bliss Habits, she’s blogging at gingerblue.com (come say hi!) or posting new things in the gingerblue etsy shop.
Well said, and I also love the quote by Mr. Tan. As an “informed” Introvert, I long ago recognized the value of mindfulness. Before even knew what it meant to be an Introvert I use to joke occasionally about needing to go spend a little time in my quiet place. Now I understand that is not a luxury, but a necessity for me to maintain balance. Thanks for the wise words and inspiration. 🙂
Thank you, Marquita! I love the phrase “informed introvert”. I feel that way, too! I’m slowly learning how to balance my “introvert” needs with the basics of well-being.